Im 23 now. I've never had six pack abs. I've come close. But never close enough. Nobody would ever peg me as "fat". In fact, when I get really slim, people sometimes say I'm too thin. I am NOT anorexic. I love to eat and I try to eat healthy. I am not bulimic. As guilty as I've felt sometimes after eating too much I have never made myself throw up.
In high school I was basically skin and bones but never in good shape. I started exercising moderately in 2000. But it was just throwing weights around with no knowledge or anything. In the begininning of 2001 I was doing okay but then that summer I quit exercising and was eating terribly. Pizza and soda was the norm and I would try to stem the damage by doing the SLIM FAST diet for a week at a time. It was no use. By the time I got to my new home in late 2001 I was almost 170 pounds. I am 5'7" and 170 is sick.
So I made friends with the stairmaster and I startiung eating better and I lost about 20 pounds. So by the summer of 2002 I was about 150 but my body fat was still 15 percent or so. I didn't think of myself as fat until I saw some pictures in OCT 02 and I thought "I'm a bit chunky". So I learned about bodybuilding and dieting and everything and by FEB of 2003 I had dieted down to 134 and 11.5 percent body fat. Well then I went on vacation and my vacation came back with me and I was eating badly again and by AUG 03 I was back to 148. But I woke myself up and decided to lose weight again and so three weeks ago I was down to 135 and 11 percent body fat.
Well these past 3 weeks have been KILLER and I have been willy-nilly with exercise and eating. So this past Sunday I clocked in at 147.5 pounds and 14 percent body fat. So -- I am frustrated to say the least but in studying my journals I have seen what really works for me.
The good thing is using the bodybuilding methods I've learned and by supplementing with Creatine and Glutamine I've built more mass. I'm not huge but I have real muscles in my arms and chest and legs. I'm slim so I don't know if I could ever be really big but at least now I don't look like a stick but 14 percent fat for me is too much and I want abs. So guess what? I'm going to get them.

Here are my obstacles : not sticking with an exercise plan.
But you know, I love to exercise and I would bet I exercised 300 days out of 365 this past year.

NEW PLAN :
TUES - SAT aerobic exercise at the gym, alternating INTERVAL cardio with STEADY pace cardio.
TUES, THURS, SAT - after work lifting weights

DIET PLAN : I'm going to eat a good breakfast, dinner and lunch with no hard and fast rules about carbs. Keep protein HIGH with lots of veggies. variety is a MUST and I'm going to build in "treats" so that the temptation to cheat is lowered.

My BIGGEST obstacle is eating at night. I am like a zombie. You cannot believe how bad it can get. 3000 calories of things like cereal and peanut butter in minutes. The guilt afterwards is usually crushing. How I managed to even be below 150 when I used to be 170 it must be luck. But I have some new strategies. The first is to use this BLOG to record how I am feeling when I crave things and to remind myself of what I really want. Which is the vainest, sickest thing to admit I really do want to look like a GQ fashion model. I'm no model, but I can certainly have abs like one.
My other new strategy for late nite binges is to change my routine at night. at 6pm I'll lift weights and take a Protein Shake, then I'll do other things until 8:30 and I'll have dinner and then GO TO BED. My night-time routine lately has been 6:30 dinner and then other things or eating in front of the TV or whatever. It's awful. The only way to beat the night time eating is to GO TO BED AND STAY IN BED. Period.

My short term goal is to lose 10 pounds by the end of December. The problem is I always get down to 11% and then think "oh no... I'm losing too much muscle (and I don't have ample to begin with!!)" and then I quit dieting so hard. And by dieting I mean eating healthy and by quitting I mean decided that pizza and cookies everyday isn't "so bad"

SIDE EFFECT : When I eat lots of sugar and starchy foods, I break out and when I keep it as part of a healthy diet, my skin gets clear. I don't care WHAT they say, acne can defitely be aggravated by what you eat.

I'm on my way , starting now. I'm your average Joe User and I want a six pack. 2004 is the year I finally have abs just like those grinning jerks in the magazines.