David Chiu

Is it possible to transform your body in 30 days?

From all the articles I’ve read over the years in Mens Health and Muscle and Fitness, I know it’s possible. The real question is if it’s possible for me to transform my body in 30 days. That’s my challenge. I’ve been trying for years to achieve my fitness goals and have gone through personal trainers, circuit training, weight training, hip-hop aerobics, abs classes, low carb diets and thousands of dollars worth of sports nutrition supplements to get closer too, but never achieve my goals. The only two things that really seemed to help was the low carb diet - which took me from a chubby 185lbs 25%bodyfat 37in waist to a non-ripped 165lbs 15%bodyfat 31in waist, and my last personal trainer - a half Korean, half African American chiseled body builder with a heavy Korean accent and gentle demeanor. At the end of my training program with him I put on 10lbs of muscle and was benching 225lbs. Right now I’m 182lbs 20%bodyfat 33in waist. Ultimately my goal is to be 185lbs 10%bodyfat. But for the next 30 days I’m going to concentrate on losing 8lbs of bodyfat and mainting muscle mass. I know this is completely possible losing 2lbs a week by staying on a strict diet, increasing cardio and changing my weight lifiting plan to moderate weight and high reps. After years of reading fitness articles, I know getting lean and ripped is all about a strict diet. So for my diet I will be following the guidelines of the Abs Diet, but will increase my vegetable proportions, decrease my carb intake slightly and increase my protein intake so that I will be eating 2000 calories daily maintaining my current muscle mass by ingesting 182g of protein a day and supplementing with BCAA’s, L-Glutamine, and pre-alkalyne creatine (to increase strength but prevent water retention). To increase my cardio I will be joining a new yoga/martial arts class. I’ve studied martial arts for a few years when I was younger, but never have really done yoga. This fusion of yoga/martial arts promises to stretch and strengthen core muscles plus provide an intense cardio workout. I will be taking this class every other day/4 days a week. In-between those cardio classes I will be lifting weights on tuesday and thursday taking saturday off for rest and recovery. I know that if I can stick to this plan and schedule I can definitely transform my body.

Today was the first day of my personal fitness challenge, and also the first day of my new yoga/martial arts fusion class. I really enjoyed the energy of the class and how the instructor was able to ease us into different yoga positions. The workout was killer I don’t think I’ve ever sweat that much in any cardio class. I really liked how plyometric moves were incorporated into the yoga positions and kept my heart rate going. Sticking with this class will be key in helping me achieving my fitness goals.