PN success interview – Tic & Tie

By Ryan Andrews, MS, MA, RD, RYT, CSCS

Do you know many 50 year old men that love box squats, spinach salads, and hang around 10 percent body fat? I don’t. So you’re going to meet one today.

His past fat loss and body transformation attempts didn’t work and were plagued with:

Negative thinking
An inability to “dial in” nutrition
An inability to deal with food temptations

Sound familiar to anyone?

However, using the PN program and the support of the PN community, he learned how to deal with these challenges once and for all, losing 16lbs of fat, gaining 6lbs of lean mass, and dropping his body fat from an average 15% to an exceptional 9.3%.

Gerald – before, 15% body fat

Gerald after, 9.3% body fat

Here’s a day in the life of Gerald B

Tic&Tie’s profile

Name on the PN forum: Tic&Tie
Real name: Gerald
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Height: 5 feet 10 inches
Weight: 172 lbs (10/2007)
Body fat%: 9.3% (10/2007)

PN: How/why/when did you get into the healthy lifestyle thing?

Growing up, I was probably as far from being “athletic” as anyone could be. As a skinny, uncoordinated young man, I focused much more on academic success rather than physical success. Sometime during College, I realized that much of the clumsiness I had felt during my teen years was gone. Although I was not particularly athletic, I was at least average. Where some guys are ready for intense physical activity at age 16, I probably didn’t reach that point until I was 21 years old. I began to participate in some physical education classes and lift weights just for fun. I got into backpacking and camping for awhile and needed to be in good shape for that as well.

Over the next few years, getting married and having four children changed my focus and I found consistency to be my greatest challenge. I didn’t have access to a gym so running became my main exercise. I liked to run but did so inconsistently.

Gold’s gym came to our area about five years ago, and I was one of the first to join. I did quite a bit of reading about how to exercise, but never had a very consistent plan.

A few years ago, I discovered T-Nation and John Berardi as well as some of the others experts and began reading their articles. I enjoyed John’s writing style and his nutritional approaches seemed healthy. When Precision Nutrition was introduced, it seemed like a good program to finally give me some direction.

PN: What are your 3 keys to success?

Consistency – I do best when I can stick to a schedule and know exactly what I am going to eat and do for physical activity during the day.
Commitment – I often have to ask myself how important getting fit and being healthy is in my life. If it’s important, then I need to eat correctly and exercise.
Accountability – I find I do best when I have someone to report to about how I’m doing. I use a trainer not necessarily because I don’t know what to do, but because I have to report back to my trainer on how I’m doing and whether my week has been successful or not. Others I know use a partner or spouse.

PN: What are your 3 favorite forms of exercise?

I am currently working on a type of exercise, which is called, for lack of a better term, “crossfit”. It’s a group of exercises, either whole body or just certain parts done at fairly high volume, lower weight. The exercises are done with an explosive tempo. The idea is to raise your heart rate and basically do an aerobic type workout with weights. Do this once or twice a week. I find the challenge fun.
I prefer free weights and cable machines to lever machines for weight lifting. I don’t have a particular type of lift that I always do. I do like dips. Currently, I’m working on my back squat. I’m using a box squat method, which I think is really teaching me how to squat correctly. It’s humbled me, because I’ve had to drop my weights significantly.
For aerobics, I like to run and swim.

PN: What are your 3 favorite foods?

I think it was Coach Mike that posted the recipe. It’s sort of an egg crepe. One omega egg, 1 cup egg whites, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, vanilla, if you like. Cook like a pancake. I eat with mixed berries and whipped cream.
Spinach Salad – Spinach, onion, gorgonzola cheese, grape tomatoes, olive oil & vinegar. For the protein, I either use a precooked turkey breast or precooked chicken breast. Foster Farms has a precooked chicken breast in strips that are frozen. Just put on in the morning and by lunch they are thawed.
For emergency meals, I eat low fat Swiss cheese, grape tomatoes and sometimes a Granny Smith apple with peanut butter.

PN: How much sleep do you usually get?

I try for eight hours, but usually end up getting about seven hours.

PN: What is a typical day like for you?

4:45am Alarm goes off
5:00am Shower and get ready for work
5:45am Eat a spinach omelet or egg crepe
6:15am Leave for work
6:45am Start work
9:15am Eat a broccoli/apple/protein/nut shake
11:00am Leave for the gym
11:20am Start workout sipping BCAA/glutamine drink
12:20pm Finish workout, drink Surge type drink, shower
12:45pm Back at work eating spinach salad.
3:30pm Eat a broccoli/apple/protein/nut shake
5:30pm Leave work
6:30pm Eat dinner – soy burger with cheese and cooked spinach
9:00pm Try and get to bed if I’m lucky.

My favorite supplement is…

Protein. I use True Protein. My favorite mix is 40% MPI, 20% WPI, 20% Micellar, 10% Egg White, flavored with Premium Vanilla.

Precision Nutrition is…

A great program for understanding in simple terms a nutrition program that really works. It’s a lifestyle change, not a diet.

My biggest struggle with managing my body fat percentage is…

Staying with a calorie deficit long enough to get my body fat and overall look where I really want it to be.

I usually shop for my food at…

Costco.

I usually do my exercise at…

Gold’s Gym. There are several in town and I have an “all club” membership.

Additional thoughts…about the PN Forums

I really appreciate the Precision Nutrition Forums. Although my family isn’t “unsupportive,” their interests lie elsewhere so I need a support group and the forum fills that need. There are some really nice people on the forums that are supportive and positive. As I mentioned earlier, I accomplish my goals better when I feel accountable. I don’t want to have to post negative results for my forum buddies to see, so it makes me feel more accountable to follow the program.

I also learn a lot from my fellow PN’ers. There is a lot of experience and wisdom on the board and it’s great for us that are still working at getting to where we want to be.