AtleastItried’s BodyBlog

Starting yesterday, I’ve changed up my routine in order to keep my body confused and growing.  Up until now I’ve been doing minimal cardio, very controlled diet, and heavy weight lifting.  But I’ve found that, even though my strength is increasing, my overall fitness isn’t where I’d like it.

What I mean by that is… I went and tried to play basketball a few times and was sore for days afterwards.  Neck, back, abs, shoulders, legs.  It seems like… even though I can lift almost double what I’ve ever been able to before, I fall apart when I try to do something practical with it.

So yesterday I went and did  sprint intervals at the park.  But in between each interval, I was doing the fitness stations along the track.  The net result was this:

Sprint / walk 1.5 miles

3 sets of 5 chin ups

2 sets of 5 parallel grip pull ups
2 sets of 15 dips

30 leg raises

30 body weight ATG squats

3 trips down a 10ft stretch of monkey bars

several stretching stations

It took me about 30 minutes from the time I left my car to the time I got back.  I think I’m going to start doing this once a week and timing it as a benchmark for increasing my overall fitness.  Which means I’m going to start dreading sundays o.O

No, really.  They do.

I moved a few weeks ago and strained my lower back a bit.  After about two days off I went back to the gym and (surprise, surprise) felt my lower back pull a little more.  I waited another two days, then went and played basketball with some friends.  After I was done and driving home, I could barely get out of the car my back hurt so bad.  Well done, right?

So now I’m nearing the end of my doctor imposed 10 days off of any physical activity, hoping that I can get back on track in the next few days.  It sucks even worse because I was back on track with weight loss right before it happened… and now I’ve leveled out again =(

So I’ve been on this journey for over 100 days now.  I’ve gone from 266 lbs to 226 lbs.  This puts my average lbs lost / week at 2.39, which is much higher than I would have hoped for.  Since January 1st, I have been eating between 2000 and 2400 calories per day with minimal cardio (just 5 or 10 minutes to warm up before lifting).

But now, at ~226 lbs, I’ve stopped losing weight.  And starting gaining strength.  It’s very strange to me, but I’ve gone from doing DB curls with 25 lb weights to 50 lb’ers.  I’ve gone from benching 5×5 @ 180 up to 225.  And I’m visibly gaining mass in my arms, shoulders, and legs…

Does this mean… I’m actualy eating a caloric surplus at 2300 calories while weighing in at 225?  Cause if I have to reduce my calories again… I’ll probably start passing out during my 5 minute warm up run =(

Well, I’m about to cross the two month threshold.  I’m hoping I can drop 1 more pound this week, so I can say that I’ve lost 30 lbs in two months eve =)

But, that being said, I’m still a bit dissapointed with the way I look.  I had hoped that, after losing 30 lbs, I would look drastically different.  But I still look basically the same, just a bit leaner.  When I told someone at work that I’d lost 30 lbs, they actually didn’t believe me… oh well.  Still 10 lbs to go to meet my first goal.  Then I’ll set another one.  And another one.

Last thing I wanted to mention was where I got my name.  I’ve been told on multiple occasions that it’s too negative or doesn’t make sense.  But it’s that way on purpose.  When I made up my mind to start this journey in December, I told my mother about it one night.  The first thing she said was, "Well, honey, at least you tried."

That hit home with me… that this was the attitude that people have about me and my weight.  That almost imperceptable tone that hints that they expect me to fail.  But want me to feel good about it anyway.

So that’s my name.  And every time I look at it, it motivates me a little more.  There is no try.  Do, or do not.

So this weekend was Valentine’s Day.  And, me being a happily married man (and wishing to remain so), I spent most of the weekend eating cheat meals and chocolate and drinking wine with my wife.  I even skipped my abs/cardio day on Saturday!  And for all these many dietary indiscretions, I lost another pound.  Hmm… perhaps I’m on to a new diet fad?

Seriously, though, it is quite a testament to the saying, "You didn’t gain it all in a day, and you can’t lose it all in a day."  It works both ways, and it’s comforting to know that I have worked hard enough now that a single mistake won’t ruin everything!

On the subject of my wife, I’m very proud of her.  She is one of those lucky people who never had to worry a second in their life about what they ate and has always been in good shape.  She started doing this work out and diet with me in January, and has since lost 8 pounds while building muscle (which is huge for her… that’s like 7% of her total weight).

I’ve been at it officially over a month now.  I’ve gone from a peak of 266 lbs down to 242 while increasing my lifting stats across the board.  The two parts are:

Diet: has had almost no variation.  (I would love some suggestions on that.  I think I will snap if I keep eating brown rice, chicken breast, and broccoli for much longer…)  I stopped taking the protein powder I was using because I read the ingreadiants and found it had caffeine and creatine in it, which are two things I was trying to eliminate for a month or two.  I also stopped taking the Lipo-6 because it upset my stomach and didn’t do a damn thing for weight loss.  Might as well chew up a $20 bill every month for all it did.

Work Outs:  I changed up my routine to fit in a bit more total body fitness.  I now do cardio, abs, and squats on Thurs and Sat (usually ~30 minutes fairly high intensity on a stationary bike or eliptical).  I do a 1hr yoga class with my wife on Mon (this has made a HUGE difference in my flexibility, balance, and core muscle control over the last few weeks).  Weight lifting is Wed, Fri, Sun (split tris/back, shoulders/legs, Bis/chest).  On my weight lifting days I also do 20 minutes of cardio.

The biggest gains I’ve noticed have been on my squat (I started with only doing ball assisted body weight squats against a wall).  I now do 5×5 at 200×2 sets and 300×3 sets.  So massive increase there.

Here’s to another month of hard work and hot payoffs.  I want to be at ~235 by the end of March with no loss of muscle mass.  But if my gains keep up like they are, I will need to set a new goal by the end of Feb.

Stalled out after rapid losses at ~253 lbs for about a week.  With a little help from other members I dropped below 250 for the first time in years!

Tried out a spin class yesterday, but I find that I actually worked harder when I was by myself with my own music.  (Plus they were playing Cher… *shudder*).  So from now on I will stick with my own bike and eliptical machine work outs.

Speaking of cardio, once I drop below 220, I plan on adding in some actual running and set a new goal of running a 5k.  At my current weight, though, I can barely jog a 1/4 mile without getting terrible shin pains.

I started using two new supplements yesterday (need to update my BSpace with them still).  I started a casein shake instead of my regular whey since I always work out at night (thanks to bwestgat for that suggestion) and Lipo6.

It’s the latter that is bothering me… I’ve never taken a thermogenic before, so I didn’t know how my body would react to it.  So far, it’s made me a bit lightheaded (but not nearly as jittery as some people have said it would thanks to years of 8 cups of coffee a day).  But the troublesome side effect has been:  I’m starving!  The last two days since I started it (with no diet or work out changes) I have been hungry constantly.  Which is troublesome, since I’m trying to have zero cheats for these next 5 months.  Hopefully this just means that my metabolism has sped up (wishful thinking? probably).

Going to look into spin classes as well on recommendation from one of my body groups and try out one of those two times a week I think.

I think I may have hit the gym to hard after my enforced three days out of town…  Very worn out and tired today >.<  Going to take today as a forced day off and go home early to cook dinner for the wife.

Finally home, where I can get back in my routine.  Hopefully things won’t be eventful enough for me to have to post for a bit!  Just steady losses!

Edit:  Meant to add that I’m changing up my work out mix in order to keep my muscles from getting used to one routine.

Former:  Tris/Chest, Bis/Back, Shoulders/Legs

New:   Tris/Back, Bis, Chest, Shoulders/Legs

Hope this helps keep me away from the dreaded plateau!