Aspiring Wrestler

Question
QUESTION: Hi! :)
My name is Charit?I'm 17 and I'm obese. I'm an aspiring Professional Wrestler. When I move out in a couple years after high school, I'm moving to KY to enroll in a wrestling school. Although wrestling is my life and I want it badly, I am having trouble finding the right motivation and staying motivated to lose weight and get in shape to do what I love. Please help me.

ANSWER: Well the best way to stay motivated is to think about your future. Realize, this is the first step to the rest of your life. I know working out can be a lot of work, and tiring, as well as not very much fun.

I know when I work out, I get a friend or family member to do it with me. It helps pass the time, and since I know someone else is suffering with me, it makes trying to accomplish something all the more easier.

Now, losing weight is not easy. I actually had some weight issues myself. The way I got past it was being active with friends and family, especially those like me who were wanting to lose weight too. You can't tell me you don't have at least one girlfriend who doesn't want to lose a little weight. Everyone has those friends who want to lose some.

My girlfriend actually has some similar issues, she's beautiful and not big at all, but wants to lose weight. She really just needs to tone up, especially because she is tall. She's actually skinny, but has a pouch if you will, small one however.

I can understand the female perspective of wanting to be looked at well by both men and women. So, I know where you're coming from, especially as a person who had similar issues in High School.

Now, when you start wrestling training, phew, trust me, you will be pushed and pretty much have no choice but to lose weight from all they put you through.

However, you don't have to go to KY to get proper training. OVW is nice and all, but has lost pretty much all of it's WWE contact once WWE made their own developmental program, FCW. Located in Tampa, FL.

There is probably a nice school in your state I can find for you.

Now, if you'd like, I can help you with a work out/nutrition program that probably can help. All I need is your height, not weight.

Warning however, I recommend a buddy to help you through this. It will be hard, but in the end, you'll love me, ;)



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Actually I do have a friend who wants to lose weight too. She agreed to do this with me but we had no real idea where to start.

I would really appreciate if you could help me find a good school near me. :)
I live in Colorado.

Also if you could help me with a workout/nutrition program too, I would be grateful.    I'm about 5'6",

Thank you so much!

ANSWER: See, everyone knows someone who does. Now, if she's about the same height, then this would work well for both. The reason I asked for height, is because you need to be a certain weight depending on your height.

Now, when you see a guy like The Big Show on TV, you see a guy over 400lbs, almost 500. But the thing is, he's over 7 foot tall. A guy at his height needs to be over 300lbs. So, Show could stand to lose weight. But, he is active and he is a wrestler, who also has muscle going on. Muscle weighs more than fat, so, that could be why he is about 485 right now.

In any case, at 5'6, you need to be near 130 to 150. A nice, in between with that would be fine. But the question is, how do you do it?

The way to lose weight I've found is diet and exercise. There is no other way around it, no quick fix. Even diet pills say, this will work with proper diet and exercise. So, why even use the pill if you have to diet and exercise, right? It makes no sense!

So, stay away from things like this. It does nothing for you. So, first step, lose every idea of a quick fix. There are none.

Obviously the first thing to do, is to start eating right. But, that doesn't mean you have to eat nasty things. Trust me, the American food world is full of people who want to lose weight, so, stores help with that by selling foods that can help.

Look for the Weight Watchers tag on foods. If you see this, it's safe for anyone on any diet. Also, these are located in the healthy end of stores. It has things like chicken, turkey, seafood, etc.

However, you don't have to look and buy only the weight watcher label. I recommend going to your nearest Sam's Club. They make it easy to find these foods.

Buy when you're at the store, wheat bread, eggs, milk, shrimp, scallops, turkey meat and chicken meat. All of these are what we call, safe foods. You can't go wrong with grilling a lot of these things. Except for eggs, just cook them scrambled or sunny side, lol.

What I like to do, is have some protein in the morning.

So, I have 2 eggs and 2 pieces of toast. This can work for anyone. Breakfast is MANDATORY!! Do not skip it and make it up to your stomach at lunch. This is classic way people gain weight.

You don't have to have eggs every morning, it can be other proteins. Having that out of your way, you'll need to have a snack to get you going.

Have low calorie snacks. They have great one's similar to oreo's out there, and other small snacks. This will help you get to lunch.

There, you'll need to try getting in more protein. Things like mashed potatoes work here. But give yourself just one to two scoops of this. Try keeping lunch around 400 to 600 calories. It's very easy to do when you get the packs of foods like I told you earlier about, the one's with the weight watcher tag.

About 2 to 4 hours pass from lunch, get to those snacks again. Just have one of these little packs of low calorie snacks btw, both in between Breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner.

During dinner time, try keeping it once again around 400 to 600 calories. If under, great!

Don't go overboard with any of these things btw. You need to keep under 2,000 calories a day. For you, I recommend starting at 2,000 then going down and down until you can get to 1,500.

Now, here comes where you'll hate me. You need to work out at least 4 to 5 times per week for the first 3 months. Then, 3 to 4 for the next 4 months, then 2 per week for lifetime. First time you go, through the first 3 months, work out at least 20 to 30 minutes. The next 4 months, work out for at least 10 to 20. Then stay at least at 10 to 20 every time you go.

By the first 2 months, you need to be at 1500 calories a day.

You can't eat just about anything, but try staying away from eating fried foods and a lot of pork. Usually cutting out red meats like steak and things similar, are easy ways of losing weight as a person who usually eats more of this.

Things you can substitute beef and pork with are turkey and chicken. Spaghetti for instance is wonderful with ground turkey meat instead of ground hamburger meat.

Chicken pot pie is good, because it adds veggies and give you flavor with chicken and gravy, even bread.

My recommendation would be to have a 2 vegetables at lunch and dinner, and a starch if allowed in the calories per day.

You can have chocolate in this diet btw, just keep it with your calorie count. It's all about those.

Exercises you can do, is running. Running is important, but also use things like blow up balls. Trust me, that will kick your tail the first few times it's used, but it's great!

Now, swimming is what I really would recommend. It gets your whole body going. Run and swim with a friend, same with if you do a bike ride. Keep these things around 10 minutes the first few months. Then, get them longer if you want. Building up is a great thing.

Easy ideas like sit ups and push-ups are good obviously. But, also dancing can help. I know, I know!! But, first off is makes you lighter on your feet, which is good for wrestling, and it's great exercise.

Now, weights obviously are something you want to introduce. But start small when you use machines in gyms. Keep around 10 to 15 pounds for a bit, then move up slowly about 5 pounds each time.

It's all about the build up, don't go in trying too hard. Also, don't be intimidated by anyone whose there. They are all there to do the same thing, work out.

Btw, here is a school in Colorado to check into. I heard the address may have changed, but I'm not sure

IWF Butcher Shop
10650 Irma Drive Suite 32
Northglen, CO. 80233

Phone (303) 452-3523
http://www.iwfpromotions.com
http://www.myspace.com/iwfbutchershop

If you have any questions, let me know, I'll do my best to answer them.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Awesome! Thank you for going into details and actually explaining everything. I appreciate it. :)

Now the calories thing. I've never counted or tracked my calories before. It may be a stupid question, but how to I do that exactly?

For working out in the gym, this quarter for school, I'm actually in weight training so I'll be able to do it there.

I actually have hear of IWF but don't know very much about it. But I'll check it out! :)

For the running, Should I start out fast walking then slowly increase since I'm out of shape?

Answer
There are no stupid questions, only easy and hard one's, ;)

It's very easy to count them. Look on the back of the food box or wrapper, and you'll see the fat count, calorie count, etc. Remember it says per serving, not the entire thing is such and such calories.

Like say, a bag of Lays Chips is 100 calories, but that's per serving of chips. That big bag of chips isn't just 100, ya know? Also, it'll tell you how many is a serving too. Remember to always eat one serving of the things you have. It may seem like you're getting nothing, but really you are when you put it together with all the other servings of the things you'll have.

You can be in or out of a gym to exercise. Most diet plans call for at least 30 minutes a day if you're at home, however, 4 to 5 times a day in a gym is just fine, but keeping the same diet plan everyday is needed. You don't get weekends off with the food, lol. I do think it would be good to do some home training on the weekend though, if you want success more and more.

On the running, try for the first week, just doing a block of walking per day. Listen to music or go with a friend. Trust me, it makes the time go by faster.

The next week, add a block. Keep doing it weekly until you reach a mile, two miles, etc. Building your body up, that's what it's all about. It's far easier to do that, rather than running a mile the first day.

Also, run or walk at your pace with these things. It doesn't matter if you run or walk, because your legs are going to the same place, right? Running just gets you there faster. Also, running can tire you out faster. It does help your body to run and not just walk, but seriously for your case, running the whole thing would be suicide.

Now, you don't have to run everyday if you choose not to, it's just a simple exercise. You can substitute that with, say, swimming or something like that. You need to add something that makes you have to move around everyday. Weights are good to use, but you don't really move doing that everyday, ya get me? While weights are wonderful, you need to have some activity to get your body in there, if you will.

IWF is a pretty nice school I've heard. I recommend going there and talking to the trainers before enrolling obviously.

Tell me when you go so I can give you questions to ask if you're not sure what to ask