Hey dudes, thought I'd contribute something here as I'm trying to get fit/healthy while my girlfriend is trying to get her body working again.
Backstory - always a fat kid, end of highschool I weighed around 95kg and was about 6ft tall, not a lot of muscle. I ended up moving up here two and a half years ago for TAFE, got right into being healthy, plenty of exercise (indoor soccer everyday) and ended up losing 25kg in around 6 months time. Left TAFE, started working and diet got off track, started getting less exercise and over two years I'm back up to 85kg (although muscle mass is up a bit from work). Due to medical reasons, my girlfriend has to start being very careful with what she eats and it's a good of a kick in the arse as any to get my body back into good shape too.
I am currently eating fairly healthy, although I know I'm eating too much for the exercise I'm doing. Part of my plan is cutting down on red meats (was having steak/pork/lamb three or four meals a week), adding more lean protein (chicken and kangaroo) and trying to cut as much sugar and processed foods out of my diet as possible. I am currently doing Dip Muay Thai at Advanced Martial Arts Centre in Coorparoo and starting to get right into it, I've been training with a friend which is a great help (especially as he knows what he is doing). Currently I'm doing two hour lessons a week, hoping to step it up to three lessons in a month or so's time.
Now, for the boring stuff - this is a pretty good indication of my daily diet, apart from weekend I will normally eat the same sort of things:

Breakfast - Three egg and 440gm of baked beans, scrambled
Snack - Banana and small tin of tuna
Lunch - Steamed vege's (pre-prepared) and pork chop
Afternoon tea (at work) - Pack of Delites (rice crackers)
Snack (home) - rye and wholegrain biscuits with vegemite
Dinner - Topside steak, steamed snow pea's and potato/pumpkin cakes.

Along with this, I drink about 3-4L of water a day. I would love to cut down on some of the carbs and add more lean protein/good fats (mixed nuts instead of rice crackers?) Any opinions on how I could improve things? Keep in mind anything I take to work has to be pre-prepared, cheap and easily transportable.
I suppose I should also add what my goals are - I want to get my body fat percentage down from around 24% to 18-20%, my BMI is around 26 so I would love that to be in the low 20's also.

Alright, decided to step up to doing three sessions a week. I really don't know what else to add in here, so I guess I'll go through basically what a normal session involves.

3x 3min skipping split up by 3x 1.5min situps
5min of stretching (legs and shoulders)
15min of tactics (alternating attacking and defending)
15min of either bag work, sparring or pad work.
5min of shadow boxing or light sparring
5min warmdown (sitting down, stretching legs and shoulders)

Who is the head trainer/gym owner up there?

I know the diets my trainer put the fighters on was pretty good for dropping fat whilst maintaining energy, I still have it filed somewhere, but we would train 5-6 days a week. So i'm not sure how viable a fighters diet would be for you only training 3 sessions a week.

What time of the day/night do you usually train, this will impact what you eat and when also.

I will say it is one of the best, if not best methods to lose fat and get some muscle showing through, even some of the general members only going 3 days a week made noticable changes in body definition after a few months.

No head trainer so to speak, the trainer taking the class is Dip (who seems to be very known and respected in MT). I've been training 7-8 on Thursday/Wednesday and 8-9 on Tuesday night, I will normally just grab a chicken wrap on the way home on Tuesday night as I don't have time to prepare food. Other two days I will prepare something before I leave, then either cook or heat it up as soon as I get home.

Ok, little bit of a update/question. I've got some digital scales here that do a couple of other things, apparently in less than a month I've put on 2kg and dropped 3% body fat. Does this seem right? The weight I would understand, but not the big (I think it is anyway) drop in body fat percentage.

I wouldnt rely on scales for an accurate bf measurement

Greeky is correct, I have never seen any of those scales actually give an accurate measurement of body fat %, not even close. Best way to tell is by taking skin fold measurements to see if they are coming down. You can probably tell just by looking in the mirror also whether you are losing body fat or not.

I could barely tell the difference in how I looked when I lost 25kg, no chance with just a few percent body fat
I've been pretty sick lately with some sort of flu/throat infection, if I'm better tomorrow I'm going to do a strength and conditioning class, followed by an hour break and then get into my normal class. I've noticed my fitness greatly improve, starting I could barely do a round of skipping now I'm just breaking a sweat doing three.

Alright, back from the strength and conditioning class and oh boy, am I absolutely fuckered. I believe I'm going to start alternating adding a strength/conditioning and a cardio class before my normal muay thai classes, hopefully get up to a level where I can do both.
Not looking forward to tomorrow.

Weeeeeeeeee, four or five classes a week starting this week. I'm starting to see some big improvements, general level of fitness is increasing quite quickly. Days when I'm not training I'm doing sort of a 'warmup', three minute sessions of skipping broken up with pushups, situps, squats, basically whatever comes to mind.

Well, looks like I'm the only one that gives a damn about me
I have grading from beginner to amateur in a fortnight, going to try and step my training up a notch and focus solely on technique. I still have a technically correct, but piss-weak left kick that needs a lot of work for me to be happy.

Haha I still check on the threads in here daily, so I'm an avid follower of peoples logs

Good to see somebody is

Ok - self-evaluation. Technique is improving, there are still some things I want to work out before next weeks grading (mainly kicking technique). I spent almost half an hour just doing body kicks tonight, my left is finally starting to get some power. Basic stance is getting better, I still need to focus more on keeping my guard up while doing something. I still suck at grappling, although I can get my hands around their neck I am no good at the body throws without technically fouling (throwing them over my knee/leg/etc)

Have you done any of your training somewhere with full length mirrors, just so you can keep an eye on your own form?

I've had the Kru + another very experienced person watching me while I train, finding what I'm lacking and making me focus on it. I suppose the good thing is I know what I'm lacking so I can always keep it in the back of my mind.
Full length mirrors are a really good idea, it never occurred to me. Just have to find somewhere that has one.

I check lol

Alrightey.
Grading is tomorrow. Am I prepared? Probably not. I'm going to get in there early and go through all the moves as best as I can so at least I've got a better chance. Went three rounds with a guy who started a few weeks before me, he's so much better than me it's not funny - that being said he has done a lot of sparring as well as training.

Epic wins in the motherfucking house. Passed beginner grading, have been told I need to focus more on movement, improve my fitness and 'recovering' from attacks before I do the next level of grading (3 months away) , my attacking is very good though.

Hey mate, that's great news So 3 months to get yourself ready for the next level, get busy.

Definitely will be. I've got a proper sparring partner now, and my mate will be coming back from Thailand in two weeks so I can also train with him (he's currently at a training camp over there - 6 hours a day of training, 10km run breakfast and dinner, etc).
I'm looking into doing more 'conditioning' exercises than focusing on a muscle group in particular - squats, military presses, man-makers, etc, trying to put a bit more muscle on to help with my stability.

Pretty shit week at training, burnt my left leg fairly badly last week and it got infected so haven't been able to kick on it all week. Did some more sparring this week, smacked around a bit but I know where I'm flailing - need to concentrate on keeping my guard ready at all times.

Not good dude, was this burn at work?

Of course It wasn't in a big area, but burnt pretty badly in a 1cm round spot.
Two consecutive days, managed to cut myself decently deep - I've been looking for a full body kevlar/carbon fibre bodysuit I can wear to stop hurting myself

On tuesday of this week a mate of mine spilt my coffee all over me, was allof about 2 minutes old.

Pity I have my coffee no milk no sugar... Ouch!

Was red for about 3 days now its starting to peel as if its a sunburn!

You haven't posted in a month. What ever will your avid fans do?

Oh noes, I don't know!

ok... what worked for me when working me left kicks was to concentrate on that side only for about 3 weeks... start by getting your form and technique right. remember that its all in the hips... lightly kick a heavy bag completely concentrating on your technique and then slowly add power.

how are you throwing your left kick? are you switching just before you throw it? if so, forget the switch. intead, walk it. step forward and to the side with your right and then slightly drop and launch your kick. i hope you can visualise what i am trying to explain.

seriously, i struggled a lot with my left kicks in the beginning few months, pretty much did what i explained, and there isnt much difference in the power i generate between my legs. infact, i prefer throwing the left because people dont expect you to be powerful with your front foot.

i could go on forever so i'll stop here...



mirrors! they should be your best mate. they help refine technique soo much. especcially with your hands and footwork...

Yeah, I was doing the switch and then kick which was my downfall. I can kick pretty decently with my left now, but still nowhere as strong as my right.

i'm not much of a fan of the switch... unless i'm forced against the ropes or into a corner. try the step... works wonders for me...

Last week when I was able I did the step, worked quite well I must say.
Update - knee is causing me hassles, haven't been able to train for a week. I've done two weights session at home, would have liked to do some squats but I can't even lift my own bodyweight at the moment.
Hoping to be back and running next week.

my knee is giving me the shits too, but i think it might be because i have tight glutes, quads and hip flexors at the moment... stepped worked?

did some mma sparring today without leg pads, dont think i will be walking painless tomorrow...

will let you know about the decat pipe also...

Trained last night, itching to kick but only did a few very light demo kicks. series 5 has started training with me, as far as I know he loves it.

Wee, back into it and loving it. After a few weeks off and a shaky start, I've noticed my coordination has gone up a fair bit and I am kicking a lot harder. Added into that, I've also lost around 5kg since I stopped eating gluten - and haven't touched caffeine in almost a month.

I love it like a fat kid loves cake.

Hahaha, awesome shit. As of late I've been training the 'thai' way - hard, fast and plenty of rounds in a row. First night I was almost throwing up by the end of round 5, I was that fucked but it felt great afterwards.
Still dropping the 4kg I put on after eating gluten, I have about a kilo to go till I'm where I was last weekend.

Starting to get into free weights on my free days too, but only compound exercises. All weights are in reps, and 5x5.

Bench - 57.5kg
Squat - 60kg (still having problems with my knee)
Bent Over Rows - 57.5kg
Military Press - 40kg (so weak)

I'm not concentrating on it too much, but can anybody think of exercises that are good for conditioning a lot of muscles at once? Not looking to get into full crazy workouts, just something to keep me busy when I'm not training.

Well, into it for the new year. I've been doing an extra half hour of sparring prior to a session, along with hoping to pick up two extra classes a week while I'm unemployed (it has its bonuses). Almost lost my Xmas gut, week or two to go till my fitness is back to where it was.
Next grading/sparring day is in March. I'm aiming to do both.

What you mean by grading?

Basically where your ability gets judged and Kru decides if you're good enough to proceed to the next level. I am currently grade 1 (white mongkon, which is a singlet), which means I've passed the first grading. If I pass this one, I will be grade 2 (green mongkon)
At grade 3 you can enter amateur fights (comes back to your Kru allowing you to or not), at grade 4 you become a 'fighter' and at grade 5 you become a professional (can train your own classes, enter professional fights)

pretty sure mongkon is the head peice, not the singlet, but my thai is a bit rusty these days...

Ok, first day training class today. DO NOT WANT.
36 degrees inside and we were pushed extra hard as there were more of the 'advanced' students there. Back to training I go now for another hour and a half of fun.

Due to shit work hours, I am now only able to do the fighter classes. When Kru gets back from Thailand I am going to discuss it with him as they normally don't let people in who are below grade 3 or have amateur fight experience.