BT2k9

Last night’s lack of sleep really drained my energy this afternoon. I had to get some coffee to keep me going, and I rarely drink coffee. Diet was kinda crappy today, honestly. I really need to knuckle down again before this starts getting out of hand.

My workout, though, was really good despite being very tired. I did Callanetics when I got home before I headed to the gym and the stretching was just great. My intensity on the weights was good tonight, but my right shoulder had a bit of pain. I suspect that I may have slightly tweaked it when I was doing my triceps exercise on Monday. I didn’t feel anything at the time, but that’s the only thing it could be. I haven’t done anything else that could explain it. I really don’t think it’s anything to worry about, and my next shoulder workout isn’t until next Monday, so hopefully a few days off will do the trick. Although, Saturday’s weight workout does include a lot of exercises that the shoulder assists with. I’m hoping this won’t exacerbate this small injury. I’ll just have to play it by ear and make sure I don’t add another injury to my plate.

I’m supposed to update my stats and pictures tomorrow for the cutting contest, but I’m gonna hold off until Sunday because that’s my normal measuring day, and it’s only 2 days difference. I’ve probably lost ~5 pounds on the scale this month, but my measurement has consistently dropped. I know that I can do a lot better, though, and the culprit is DIET.

I think it’s officially time to whip out my self-ass-kicking device.

Got a great Pilates session in on Tuesday and did a pretty intense HIIT session at the gym. I was pretty tired when I got home and couldn’t wait to get to bed. Diet was good for Tuesday.

Yesterday I spent about 9 hours in a car driving to and from Southern California all in one day. I also had a ton of junk food on the way there and back… This whole trip was a total last-minute dealie, so I didn’t have any time to get any meals ready or anything like that. As a result, I’m not expecting a big loss on measurement day this Sunday. The drive was pretty grueling, but I’m surprisingly ok today considering the fact that I didn’t get to bed until 3am. (Alarm goes off at 6:30.)

Today I’m gonna do my 2nd weight workout for the week. Since I’m skipping the leg portion, I’m gonna do Callanetics before I head to the gym to get that nice, relaxed stretching.

Next week I’m gonna have to be extra careful with funds so I’ve really gotta make sure to have all my meals in place for the week. This will also help with these recent issues of snacking I’ve been having.

Good workout tonight despite a few yawns throughout. The gym was pretty packed when I got there and the lat pull-down station I normally use was taken, so I had to use a different one. The problem is that this one, for some unfathomable reason, only has weight in increments of 20 pounds… far too much of a difference for my taste. There isn’t a place to attach a smaller weight, either, so I can’t even adjust it except by 20 pounds. It wasn’t that huge a detriment, but a minor annoyance to start the night off.

I’ve really started taking notice at how people really don’t pay attention to putting weights away, moving benches back where they started, etc., etc. I’ve become really annoyed at the lack of respect shown by the people who do these things. It’s a real time killer to have to take someone else’s weights off a bar or do some light cleanup of an area before I can start an exercise. I’m gonna mention it next time I’m at the gym and see what the management has to say about it.

Phew, but on to the workout.

I got some pretty good heavy weights tonight. I feel like my strength has definitely gone up, especially on my shrugs and deadlifts now that I have my lifting straps. I love those things! I didn’t have any hip or knee issues at all today but I’m still wary, so I’ll stick to the stretches for this week and see how I feel by the weekend. If by Saturday or Sunday I don’t get anymore issues, then I’ll start up again.

Diet today was good, but I had a ton of liquids, so my bathroom trips today were plentiful. Not that anyone wanted to know that but there it is.

I’m going to a political rally on Wednesday, so I think I’ll move my next weight workout to Thursday then move my final weight workout for the week to Saturday morning to facilitate that nice resting cushion. Tomorrow I’m gonna do Callanetics when I get home, followed by a good cardio session.

Bedtime.

Measurements were ok. I lost on my waist measurement, so I’m not concerned about the weight gain on the scale. It was only 1 pound anyway. Also, I’m not entirely sure how accurate the scale I’m using is.
Bad news - yesterday my hip was REALLY achey pretty much all day. I didn’t feel it until I was moving around while I was cleaning up. I was very busy at home cleaning my place, so I didn’t end up getting to the gym.

Today, though, I’m getting nothing from my hip. I’m not sure what the deal is. I’m thinking next week, I’ll skip leg weight workout and place heavy emphasis on my stretches.

Diet was very good yesterday.

Today I’m gonna take it easy. 3 set week tomorrow.

I was really tired heading to the gym tonight. I almost fell asleep driving at least once, but despite this, I got a good workout in tonight. Friday nights at my gym is ghost town city, so I feel like I’ve got the run of the place. I’m starting to recognize certain people more and I’m very comfortable at this gym.

My knee was bugging me a small bit all day today. The weather out where I live has been atrocious the entire day today - nonstop rain. We need it, though. It wasn’t a detriment to my leg workout tonight, and I upped the weight a bit. I’m definitely not lifting back at full capacity that my legs can do. I could have done 200 on the leg press for at least another 20 reps, but I stopped after 15, which is 4 reps above my max target for this week. (2 set week, max reps should fall between 8-11 reps per set.)

My diet was good today. I think that multivitamin is drying out my throat, but it could just be the weather because these past few days I’ve been guzzling water like a fish. Not that that’s a bad thing. Maybe my body has acclimated to the water intake I’ve been trying to get to and it’s now demanding that amount all the time.

Man… another week is already gone. I can hardly believe it, the time is moving so quickly. The first month of this year is GONE! 5 more weeks until Cycle 2 is complete. I can’t wait to see what progress I make on this cycle.

Tomorrow I’m gonna do a cardio session and Callanetics.

Yesterday was good. Did really well on my diet, hit the gym for 20 minute HIIT cardio session, then had a bunch of stuff to do at home.

Tonight is my last 2 set workout for this cycle. Another week down… can you believe it’s already the end of January?

On an related note, the contest definitely seems to have slowed down a bit. A lot of the activity level on the forums has gone down and the coordinator has been MIA for the past week. I’m hoping it picks up again, but if it doesn’t, then I will just keep doing what I have been for the past 7 weeks - staying consistent, motivating myself, busting my butt in the gym.

Starting in February, I’m returning to the clinic I volunteer at on Sundays. I don’t think this will affect my workouts very much, if at all, but there are times when things need to be done on weeknights. We’ll see how it goes.

Awesome workout tonight. I got in my new gloves and my new lifting straps and the difference is night and day. I feel like I can finally start making progress on my shrugs and my deadlifts now that my grip isn’t going to cause issues.

No hip or knee issues whatsoever today. Seems like it’s finally going away completely. Next leg workout is Friday.

Diet today was good, but not great. Yesterday turned out to be a bit of a cheat day… one of my favorite meals is eggs over easy with hash browns and bacon… I ended up getting dinner at one of my favorite diners with the intention of eating about half last night and the rest this morning. Let’s just say it didn’t end up like I planned so I ended up overeating by quite a bit.

All in all, I’m really enjoying this low-key 2 set week.

Measurements were good yesterday, and I’m under 300 pounds. I don’t see much progress in my 6th week picture, but I know that I’ve made progress due to my measurements and my weight. Also my attitude and my behaviors have also positively changed.

Tonight’s workout was wonderfully easy after those grueling 5 set weeks. I did some VERY light sets on my legs and didn’t have any hip discomfort at all. I’m still gonna take it VERY easy ramping up the weight on them.

Diet today was ok. My coworkers tried to tempt me with a cake, but I told them I couldn’t break my diet anymore. I did have one truffle, though.

Today I bought a few things I’ve been needing for a bit. I picked up a multi-vitamin I want to start taking because I know that I’m not getting all the nutrition I need from the food I eat alone. I also got some gloves and some calipers so that I can start measuring 2 ways instead of 1.

Gotta get up really early for work tomorrow. It’s gonna be a really busy day and I need to be 110%.

I’m unbelievably energized, stoked, excited, ecstatic, and any other number of adjectives that I’m finished with my first 6 week cycle. I can’t wait to see what measurement day is like tomorrow.

Today was a good workout. Got to the gym a bit later than I intended, but I was still able to bust out my sets without interruption. There was this one dude there today who was just full of energy. He walked around like he owned the place and was generally hyped up. It was pretty cool because he gave me more incentive to bust my ass seeing how hard he was working. He went around giving people at random high-fives after each set. It was a sight to see and really gave the place a great positive energy.

I started the day off with a full Pilates session. I don’t even remember the last time I did a Pilates workout. It got me warmed up after the cold night here and I was energized for my weight workout.

Skipped forearms again, but my grip was strong and unwavering today. I’ve been using the real meaty part of my hand and keeping the bar off my fingers as much as possible. The calluses are getting unreal, but it’s helping me keep my grip better. I’m definitely gonna get a pair of gloves for this next cycle.

Diet yesterday was good. (Cloverfield is awesome, by the way. Go see it if you even remotely enjoy monster movies.) I got an Icee, but that was my only bad thing pretty much all day. I even only sampled 2 of the truffles at work. I’m gonna be extra careful for the rest of today.

Tomorrow I’m gonna rest. It will be a low activity day.

Started the night with a Callanetics session to get me all nice and stretched, then headed to the gym and banged out 15 minutes of HIIT. Did a 5 minute warmup on the elliptical before hitting that hybrid again. I think this machine responds to my heart-rate and adjusts the difficulty based on how fast my heart is beating.

It’s early and I’m gonna go to bed early for once. Earlier than the 12:30 - 1 am nights I’ve had all this past week. Definitely moving tomorrow’s weight workout to Saturday. My friends and I are seeing Cloverfield. Been waiting for this one since that first trailer with no name. There’s midnight showings, but I’m too tired to go, despite the 80 minute running time. (You have to account for ads. Most times there’s at least 10-15 minutes of ads for big releases.)

Lastly, diet was ok today. No episodes of gorging myself, although my other boss came back from vacation today (Weird how he came back on a Thursday… most would have just taken the rest of that weekend and returned the following Monday.) and he brought some goodies. I had to try a piece of each - very rich, subtle chocolate truffles. Wow…these were indescribable. Then there was this pistachio nougat ‘candy’ he brought back… I had my doubts about this one. It wasn’t terrible, but it’s one that I’m just not feeling. Lastly, the ever popular chocolate mints. These were pretty good. After these small indulgences today, I’m sitting down to a very small final meal. I’ve gotta be extra careful these next few days, I want to end this cycle with a good loss.