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Name: Holger Plaetschke
Before:
After:
This is the part of the story that goes back many years, right back to when I was in high school. I was hit with the bodybuilding bug back some 23 years ago. Reading the Muscle Magazines of the day, seeing the giants of that time Like Lee Haney, Richard Gaspari and others competing, I was awe struck at what the human body could look like. My self esteem was not too high at that time and I was a skinny little kid that had dreams of becoming as big as I could be. This is part of the story that you may have heard many times before, I did not have a good self image of myself... could I become what I have seen in the magazines? Not having a usually North American name caused some teasing in school as well. My goal then became to look like I could lift a house. I started working out in the tiny Universal gym they had at the school, not knowing anything about eating right or even the proper way to train. The gym and training has been a constant in my life ever since.
  Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke. Every time I saw myself I always saw the skinny kid from grade 9 so I was never happy with my appearance; I needed to get bigger. Over the years I started to lift heavier and heavier and started to put on the size, strength and the weight. I was doing what I always wanted; I was getting as big and strong as I could. The thing was, as I was doing this I was not following any kind of dietary plan I would eat anything. My thought was ... I am training and lifting weight and I need to eat to stay strong and stay big... right? Well last year, July 22 to be exact, I went camping with a number of friends and this picture was taken of me on the beach.
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke. What an eye opener it was. I did not have this great muscular physique. Sure I was big and could bench over 400LBS but I looked fat. One of my friends told me afterward that he thought, "Who is that fat guy on the beach that looks like Holger," and it turned out it was me. I decided I needed to make a change in my life. I was no longer pre-occupied with being strong and massive but instead to be healthy and look good. I changed my eating and my training. I was 255 LBS on the beach in the before picture.
It was time to make a change. This part is not easy to do at all. I needed to give up the foods I just took for granted. First I needed to start to eat properly. I had all the resources I just needed to use them and stick to it.
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke. I decided to follow the 90-Day Body For Life Challenge at first but I never completed the program. I wanted to do it on my own. Now I was watching my proteins and carbs intakes and making sure I was not eating so much of the foods that I really loved, like pizza and burgers. My workouts changed as well. I added 30 minutes of cardio to my training to help lose the fat that I so did not like from the beach picture. I became more focused on training for physique and not so concerned about trying to lift super heavy weights.
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke.
The main supplements I have been taking are protein (Isoflex by Allmax), and for fat loss I was using 3D burn from Gaspari Supplements. I am now more and more concentrating on eating the right foods at the right time. I am not counting calories but I have been following a carb cycling program.
My current training is split with a 3 days on and 1 day off, and then 3 days on and 2 off. This is what it looks like at my current weights:
Chest:
Biceps:
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke.
Back:
Triceps:
I train my abs every second day. I was doing 20- 30 minutes of cardio every day when I was in the gym. I am currently not doing that much cardio. The days that I am not doing abs I do 15-20 minutes on the bike.
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke.
On my current diet I am doing a carb cycling diet with a 3 day cycle, 6 meals a day. Breakfast is 6-8 eggs; 1 to 2 whole eggs the rest egg whites and on carb days I have dry oatmeal mixed with pineapple. Day 1 would be a no carb day with lean red meats and green veggies. Day 2 would consist of either chicken of white fish with either brown rice, Pita breads, potatoes, or whole wheat pasta. Day 3 is the same as day 2 with double the carbs. On Sundays I usually have a cheat meal where I can enjoy some of the foods I have chosen not to eat. I do find it hard even now not to eat just what I want. What makes it harder sometimes is the peer pressure from some of my friends that are not so much into fitness and eating clean. Some do not seem to understand how hard this is and try to get me to have that food that I really want to eat but have chosen not to. Or have the beer at the BBQ when I had decided not to drink for a certain amount of time.
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke. To be totally honest there have been times when I did give in; have that desert (at a Wedding) and the drinks I said I would not, but this is all a learning experience and I am still coming out on top. If and when I falter, I get back up and start a new day. I do not let it get me down; I will just do better next time. This philosophy has worked very well and with each day I get better and better at staying on the clean food track.
I plan on entering my first bodybuilding contest in June of 2008. I know I have still a lot of work ahead of me and there will be ups and downs as I go along this new road I have chosen, but I also know that no matter what I have already won. If I can do it so can you.
 Click To Enlarge. Holger Plaetschke.
Holger Plaetschke Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
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