How I dropped 3% Body fat in 6 weeks!

I guess I should start with these results are not typical and consult your doctor or physician before beginning a workout program...

Now that I got that out of the way, it's been very difficult! I'd be lying if I said that I never got frustrated when I got on the scale or REALLLLYYYY wanted a cheat meal but never actually ate one. The fact of the matter is that the progress that I've seen in these 6 weeks has been a result of several things. Here's what I'd attribute it to:

1) Consistency in the Kitchen - I've posted about it before but my wife and I meal plan weekly so that we can get a good idea of what we need to buy at the grocery store. I know a lot of people think that meal planning equals chicken breast and broccoli EVERYDAY! And, to be honest, for some people, that may be the case. For us, it just helps us make the best food choices given our schedules, our budget, and our fitness goals. We allow room in our weekly meal plan for meals out or days that we don't take lunch. At the end of the day, it's flexible but it is at least a guide line for us to try to make good nutritional choices.

2) Dedication to the Dumbbells - The first thing people think of when they want to lose weight is cutting out all the carbs in their diet. The second thing is increasing cardio (I'll address this later) and putting the weights down. Staying dedicated to weight training definitely helped me maintain my muscle mass and I can tell I'm getting stronger. Even though I didn't put on the amount of lean mass that I wanted, I can tell that I FEEL different. The way my clothes fit, the muscle memory from the movements...all of that! It's a great feeling!

3) Cranking up the Cardio - Now, I know that there are runners and then there are the rest of us. I think I can speak for the rest of us when I say, it's hard to stare at yourself in the mirror when you're doing cardio in 20 degree weather. Honestly, if we burned as many calories tweeting, taking Instagram pics, or watching our biceps in the mirror as we do from running 10 40-yard sprints, we'd ALL be in better shape! I have NEVER liked running but I don't mind moving so for cardio I do 9Round Kickboxing, T25, Insanity, Circuit Training, or HIIT. All of these are ways to get your heart rate up and burn some more calories. If you're not at that fitness level yet, the elliptical is still one of my go-to's. It's a low-impact cardio life-saver that I use weekly!

4) Everything in Moderation (sorry I couldn't come up with any alliteration for this one) - One thing that I've learned is that I can't beat myself up when I give myself a cheat meal or when something comes up and I can't go to the gym like I planned. Contrary to all the pages I follow on Instagram, I have ZERO desire to be a fitness model/bodybuilder. That being said, I know that one of the biggest reasons I've seen progress lately is that I've been able to have more balance in everything. School, work, church, gym, down-time, etc. Being able to understand what's really important in life can help put things in perspective. Now, does that mean I have a week's worth of cheat meals? Absolutely not! However, I do know that once I have my meal, I enjoy it, I don't wallow in guilt but I do make sure I hit the gym hard on my next go around. 

So...that's it! That's how I've managed to be down in the first month of my attempt to Build Rome! We'll see what the numbers say in 4 more weeks but until then, keep making forward steps!

Like Spinach? Love Brownies? Try these!

SPINACH BROWNIES! Now I know...it sounds gross. Chocolate + Spinach... I get it but I assure you two things: 1) There's no chocolate in these (Yeah, I know. That kinda sucks) but 2) These are DELICIOUS! The recipe I started from was on on AllRecipes.com but I modified it some based on some of my own preferences and I'm sooooo glad I did because this was the final product!

First things first, what do you need?

- 1 (10 ounce) package of spinach
- 1 (8 ounce) package of mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1 chopped onion (even though I actually used closer to half)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Bacon (however much you want to add. I used 8 pieces)
- 1 9x13 pyrex dish (or any kind of dish to bake in)
*Total time: 45-55 minutes*

Go ahead and preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease your pyrex dish. I use Olive Oil Pam cooking spray. Next, Boil your spinach. It's a bunch of spinach so unless you have some fancy stove, it'll take longer than the 3 minutes that All Recipes said it would but don't worry, while it's boiling you can do the next step. 

Chop your onion and bacon into small pieces. If you don't have a food processor, you'll need to mince your garlic as well but I just threw mine in our KitchenAid. I added garlic because I'm a big fan of what it can do to amp up the flavors of food. Naturally, I added bacon because I wanted to have a savory element as a change of pace with the dish but considering how little I used, I'm sure these would've been perfectly good even without it. 

Once you have everything chopped, set that to the side and grab a mixing bowl. Put your flour, salt, and baking powder in the mixing bowl. 

Add in eggs, milk, and butter and mix with a whisk. You'll end up with a brownie-like batter. Add in your cheese.

Add in your bacon, garlic and onion to the mixture and mix. 

Next, add in your spinach (after you've drained it). I drained my spinach and still could tell that there was a lot of water in the leaves so I used one of those spoons with holes (it has been brought to my attention that these spoons are called "Slotted Spoons". Who knew?!) in it and added the spinach to my mixture. Once I added it, I mixed it so it was even.

Next, pour your mixture into your greased pyrex dish and put in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until you see the "brownies" start to form a slight golden crust. After about 40 minutes, you'll have this!

That's it! This recipe makes 24 servings and each one serving is just 68 calories. Make, share, and ENJOY! 

I'm eating more...and I think I like it!

I remember the days of arguing with my nutritionist about how IMPOSSIBLE it was to get to 2000 calories without eating a LARGE Wings & Things from Zaxbys. Now, I've really gotten a better grasp of how meal planning and eating 6-7 small meals a day can truly give me consistent energy throughout the day instead of the spikes and valleys that I experienced back when I was eating whatever the hell I wanted. Don't get me wrong...I DEFINITELY miss french fries (or freedom fries - remember when that was a thing? anyways...) but I've found ways to make DELICIOUS food by switching up the seasonings that I use as well as my meal prep methods (brine, vacuum seal, marinate, etc). Now that I'm working out twice a day 5 days a week, I need more fuel and tracking it is the best way to make sure I'm eating properly.

The most helpful tool that I have is MyFitnessPal! If you're unfamiliar with the app/website, here's an quick overview: Basically, it's a place to log the food/drinks that you put into your body. The app has evolved a lot, now giving you the ability to scan barcodes of food products that you're cooking and also letting you create recipes based on the ingredients you use to figure out the calories in a made from scratch meal. Now that I'm trying to add muscle and burn fat, I've wanted to increase my protein and decrease my carbs. So far, this week has been very successful! I'm mixing up what I'm eating so that none of my recipes get stale but still making sure I'm mindful of what goes into my body. Here's a breakdown of the week I'm having:

I don't know where those goals came from so don't mind those but I'm anxious to see what a diet like this will do on the scale and in my closet - I'm working on dropping inches! The last and probably the coolest part about MyFitnessPal now is that they are now partnered with Pact! I would try to explain how it works but I think this video does the best job. 

Sign up and start making some money! No one said you had to Build Rome for free! You get the body that you want and you get paid for it..that's a win win.

Like Cauliflower? Love Pizza? Try this recipe out!

Yesterday, my wife and I were meal planning for the week and she stumbled across a recipe for Cauliflower Crust Pizza. I don't think she thought I'd try to make it but instead, I think she was just sharing it because it was something "cool". I wrestled with the idea of trying it because honestly, I wanted to do something simple but after reading the recipe, it was a no brainer - IT'S SO EASY! Total time, including bake time, was about 30-40 minutes. 

First, you'll need: Cauliflower (I used a normal sized one so I could make a bigger pizza)
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 cup of Mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 eggs  

*Oh yeah! and you'll need wax paper and cooking spray (I used Pam)

Start with you cauliflower. Make sure you rinse it really well. If you have some, use Vegetable Spray, use that to make sure you get it really clean. Go ahead and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

You only need florets so feel free to throw away the stems and the stalk. Once you have all the pieces, I'd suggest re-rinsing (with your vegetable spray) just because now you're able to clean parts of the cauliflower you weren't originally able to. Dry the cauliflower and put the pieces in your food processor and pulse until you get a "cauliflower snow" like this: 

Put the "cauliflower snow" in a microwaveable bowl (I just used a plastic mixing bowl since I knew I'd be mixing in the next steps) and microwave for 4 minutes. After you microwave, dump the contents of the bowl onto a clean (and lint-free) towel. After it cools for about 5 minutes, you'll want to squeeze out all the water that you can. To give you a good barometer, I squeezed out about 1 cup of water. 

Once you have the "cauliflower snow" as dry as possible, put it back in the mixing bowl and add the parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese (save the rest for later), basil, oregano, garlic powder, salt, red pepper (if you want a little kick), and the two eggs. The original recipe calls for 1 egg but I found that the second egg really helped everything bond better. 

Mix the contents with your hands until you have a ball of "cauliflower dough". This next step is VERY IMPORTANT...take the wax paper and put it on the baking sheet of your choice. I happened to have a 12" pizza pan so I put it on that. Spray the wax paper with the cooking spray. This part was important because, it was difficult prying off the crust from the sheet even though I sprayed the sheet with Pam so use liberally. Place your newly formed "cauliflower dough" on the wax paper and spread out evenly (I cheated and took another piece of wax paper, put it on top and used my rolling pin but if you don't have one, your hands will work fine). It'll look like this:

Put it in the oven for 10-12 minutes until it looks like this:

Take the crust out of the oven and go to town with your toppings! I added tomato sauce, baked chicken breast (trying to become more of a breast man), and spinach. Use the rest of the mozzarella cheese that you have measured out to cover your toppings or the sauce, however you want! Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes and you're good to go! This was my finished product!

There you have it! A gluten free, low carb, delicious, healthy version of junk food! I hope you try it and let me know how it worked for you! Enjoy :-) 

Week 1 is in the books...

...AND I LOST ALMOST 2LBS!! I know, I know...that's not huge loss but after this plateauing feeling I've had, I'm just glad to see a smaller number on the scale! Started out this week (as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts) at 258.8. Stepped on the scale yesterday morning and was down to 257.2! 

I feel pretty good about the progress from last week but I think I can do better. I didn't stick to my meal plan as I should've (even though, when I didn't, I still made good choices) but I know I can do a better job at that. After talking with the Nutritionist at my gym, I need to get my carbs down. MyFitnessPal tracked my food and my carb/protein/fat breakdown was 35%/33%/32%. I need to readjust to back to how I was the last week of December (34%/43%/23%). Needless to say, I'll be looking at what I ate that week and trying to incorporate it into my diet this week. 

As far as workouts, I worked out 11 times last week. I have been doing T25 in the mornings and then weight training in evenings. The T25 workouts were challenging but no more challenging than Insanity. The hardest part for me is waking up earlier than normal to workout but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I am finding that I have more energy throughout my day when I workout in the morning and I'm eating more (good) calories so that will help with energy levels as well. I averaged 2271 calories per day last week. Not great but could be worse. Going to try to get my average over 2350 this week. 

Progress is being made people! Let's see how week 2 goes! Build baby, Build!

Sooo... I think I've plateaued

Soooo... I think I've plateaued (which I assure you is how this word is spelled). Now, I know what you're thinking: "We're barely a week into January! There's no way you're plateauing!" Honestly...you may be right. Part of my issue is that I have an uncanny ability of comparing myself at my beginning to others at their middle. I look at some of the fitness pages that I follow for inspiration on Instagram or Tumblr, and part of me gets a little down on myself for allowing myself to get SOOOO far off! So I subconsciously set expectations for how much progress I should make a day/week after working out regularly and eating properly. 

The second part of my issue is that I've found the best way to stay consistent is to set a routine. That makes sense, right? I do my weights - Monday's are Shoulders & Arms, Tuesday's are Leg Day, and so on and so on - but I didn't have a really commitment to cardio. 

Even though it's only January 8th, I've actually been working out 4-5 times a week since the beginning of November. My goal was to start working out then so that when January comes around, and everyone gets on their fitness kick, I'd already be in a good routine and that influx of new motivation would help me keep going...and it has! But, unfortunately, I started seeing my progress slow to a complete halt towards the end of December. After some research and talking to my friends in fitness (that sounds kinda like a superhero group), I decided that I needed to ACTUALLY commit to some real cardio and that's when I rekindled my love for Interval Training! If you're like me and have never had a "Runner's High", check out this article on the benefits of Interval Training. I'm now committed to doing 30 minutes of cardio DAILY along with weight training. I'm also not getting on the scale everyday and beating myself up when the number doesn't move. I have to remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and I can't expect to see progress overnight. This is a marathon, not a sprint and seeing the course to the end will be the true mark of my commitment to the process. Hopefully, if you've ever felt the way I did, you can find a way to get back on the wagon (or is it off the wagon? I hate that damn saying) and get back on track with your fitness goals! It's never too late to start over so don't wait for another January 1st to start new/better habits! 

Fact or Fiction: Eating less will help me lose weight?

FICTION!!! Take it from me, I learned the hard way. My nutritionist would look at my food logs and every meeting was the same. 

"That's it?"
"What do you mean, that's it?"
"That's all you ate...for the whole day?"
"Yes! I was full though. I couldn't eat anymore..."
"Your body is holding onto fat because of two things. #1 is your infrequent eating schedule. #2 is that you simply aren't eating enough calories for your fitness levels or your desired goals..."

As you can see, this conversation happened so many times that it is ingrained in my head. All jokes aside, I can't stress this enough. Think of the food you eat as fuel. If you're putting good fuel in your body, your body will run like a well-oiled machine but if you don't have some kind of schedule (i.e. skipping breakfast or eating dinner whenever you get to it), your body will process the good things as fuel but will store all that bad stuff for later! Your body wants to make sure that if you don't eat again when it's low on fuel, it'll have some kind of reserve to go to. I know it's not science but you can get the fancy lingo here (courtesy of Liza Barnes & Nicole Nichols, Health Educators)

That being said, 6 meals may not be for everyone but if you are looking for ways to snack better, try out this recipe that I actually did myself yesterday. It's for Dark Chocolate Granola Bars and the best part is that it doesn't require ANY baking! They taste great, they're healthy and the best part is, you know exactly what you're putting into it, therefore you know exactly what you're putting into your body! 

After all, you can't Build Rome with cheap material! I'll be posting more recipes that I've personally tried as well as some meals that I really like. If you try them out, comment and let me know how they worked for you and if you changed anything! Let's BUILD together!

January Challenge: T25!

Since 2013 was the year of the 30-day challenge, I decided that Building Rome will have 12 monthly challenges. For January, we're starting off slow fast! I've done Insanity and P90X and as incredible as those workouts are, finding time to commit to them always became a challenge and I eventually faded out of both programs. What I love about T25 is that it's only 25 minutes! Yup, that's it! Now, for the record, I have zero certifications or licenses in whatever it is that tells people what they should and shouldn't do for fitness. That being said, if you're up for the challenge, give it a shot! If not, start easy - 25 minutes of physical activity a couple times a week will do you a world of good, I promise! 

Obviously, before starting each month, I'll be taking my measurements and noting my weight. Today, January 5th, I'm 258.8lbs. I don't really have a weight loss goal for January because I feel like I've got some water weight to drop but I also need to put on some muscle. So my goal is to make it through the month, Following The Plan (#FTP for those of you who are new to the program)! 

So there we have it - I'll be doing T25 in the mornings and weight training in the evenings (4-5 times a week)! If you're doing T25 too, chime in and let me know how it's going for you! Start Building your Rome today!

Meal Planning made simple!

Me and the wife have found a pretty solid routine for our weekends when it comes to our fitness & nutrition. Saturdays are for meal planning and Sundays are for actual meal prep. We aren't extreme meal preppers - no scales or talking about grams of chicken! We just sit down and brainstorm some of our favorite foods that we'd be up for eating in the coming week. For proteins this week, we're having chilli, chicken breast, chicken thighs, salmon and spaghetti (in no particular order). We aren't at the point of mass cooking lunch/dinner on Sundays for the whole week, primarily because we don't have the space in our freezer (wishlist: deep freezer!). If you have a similar challenge consider trying it the way we do it. 

Once we do the brainstorming, sides included, we do an inventory of what's in the cabinets/fridge (because nothing sucks more than buying something you already have some of) and then make our grocery list. Wifey does the shopping (God Bless that beautiful woman) and we cook on Sunday for Sunday dinner, Monday lunch, and Monday dinner. On Monday, we cook Tuesday's lunch and dinner... you get the pattern. 

One recipe I want to share is what I have for breakfast everyday. It's quick, easy, and most of all delicious! Granted, since we started making these, we've changed it up some (like using turkey instead of these sodium rich sausages and egg whites instead of whole eggs) but this recipe for Amazing Muffin Cups will definitely make your days start faster and better. Eat up! 

Who are you?

Yes...YOU! Who is my target audience? Well, that's simple. Anyone who's working at being a healthier, fitter version of themself (or is it theirself? ugh... I hate those two words). I'll be posting about my challenges, successes, new things I'm trying, recipes, workouts, etc. I'm definitely going to be reading things and sharing what I'm learning with y'all (yes, this is written from good ol' South Carolina!). Well, I just wanted to get this out the way. Now that we're all friends feel free to interact! Having 4 siblings, I've never been good at talking to myself so jump in and share and ask questions - The more the merrier! In the mean time, I'll just be putting some info out there on what I'm doing and how I'm doing it!

Keep building! Remember, "Progress is a Process" and reaching your goal won't happen overnight! 

Starting from the Bottom

Soooo... I'm trying my luck at blogging again in hopes that it'll keep me more accountable of really sticking to this fitness journey that I'm on. This will be my journal, of sorts. I'll be posting workouts, challenges, recipes, and my overall progress throughout this whole thing. So first things first...

(left = 285...right = 260)

Last year, on the first of the year, I weighed 285.6lbs!!! By far, the heaviest I'd ever been in MY WHOLE LIFE! There are dozens of excuses that led to me ballooning up to that weight but I think that at the end of the day, my metabolism just got lazy as hell. Anyways, after some minor adjustments in my diet (less fried food, no alcohol during the week, eating more) and getting more committed to my workouts, I dropped some major weight. 

On January 1st of this year, I weighed in at 259.6lbs!! *insert round of applause here* I'm stoked! I really wanted to take some momentum into the New Year and so far so good. The biggest difference is in my diet. No alcohol during the week isn't so bad and actually...the more I think about it...seems more responsible (right?). Cutting back on fried food was easy once I really started finding recipes for delicious food that is healthy (I'll definitely be sharing with you all!). Lastly, eating more surprisingly helped a lot. That whole, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" saying might be true after all. Now I have 5 meals a day, making sure I ALWAYS eat breakfast.

The weight isn't just falling off though. To kind of switch it up, I'll be starting T25 on Monday, January 6th! A good cardio boost in the mornings and then I'll do weights 4-5 times a week in the evenings. Thanks to apps like Pact and MyFitnessPal, I'm really looking forward to seeing my progress this year!

Lastly, I guess I should explain the name of the blog, eh? Well, one of my frat bros actually shared it with me last year. We talked about how much goes into a truly healthy body. Like Rome, the healthy body that we all want won't be built in a day, but instead over time. I know I'm not the only one who's every worked out two days in a row and then got on the scale the next day, only to be discouraged by no change. So that's it...this is my journey. I'm bodybuilding Rome or #BuildingRome for shorthand (everyone loves hashtags, right?). I want to look back on these posts on January 1st of 2015 and say, "I succeeded because I was persistent and consistent." 

So there you have it...let's begin...