BuckSpin - A Year Of Change

This is Pascho.

A definition:

1. to be affected or have been affected, to feel, have a sensible experience, to undergo
- in a good sense, to be well off, in good case
- in a bad sense, to suffer sadly, be in a bad plight
- of a sick person

If you have never used one of these you wouldn’t understand. If you have, then you can relate to the ying & yang of the definition.

It brings onto you great pain & suffering.
It brings onto you great core gains & satisfaction, as well as a great burn.

Pascho & I wrestle 2x a week on Tuesday & Thursdays during my early AM core workout. I do 2 sets - one 60 seconds, one 45 seconds.

Pascho may look innocent, but do not let those innocent, child toy’s like wheels & look fool you. Pascho is a cold blooded killer….of abs, obliques, psyches, etc.

Today I reached a new level with Pascho. For the 1st time I felt my shirt touch the floor. I’m getting pretty darn close to a full extension. It hurts soooooo good! I was able to do 13 that way in the 1st set, 9 in the 2nd.

Pascho & I have a love/hate relationship.

Until Thursday Pascho….

Back in college all nighters were SOP and something I did often (more times out of necessity than, um, "fun"). I always defined an all-nighter as staying up thru 4am. I learned that even if you could go to bed at, say 5:15am, that you were asking for big trouble in a few hours when you had to get up & get to campus for that 3 hour studio class at 8:30am.

I also learned how to tell time without a clock. I noticed that, inevitably, around 4am the stealthy quiet of the late night/early morning was broken by the sound of birds chirping. I had no idea that birds clocked in at 4am, but it happened too often to be ignored. So if I heard birds chirping I knew I was going to stay up.

With my new sleep schedule I’m doing my damnest to get 7-8 a night. No more bird songs for me (as if I had heard them recently anyway)….or so I thought.

Life threw me a curve for today (a rare Monday shift) that dictated that either I wait until around 7:30-8:00pm to get my schedule Monday lifting (Chest & Bis Day) in, or do it early.

I chose the latter. Thats right. I chose to wake up at 4am, about an hour-hour & a half earlier than I usually do. What sane person wakes up at 4am to make a scratch breakfast & go destroy their pectoralis majors/minors as well as their biceps?

Call me crazy 

Getting back to college, when I was a freshman I had a 21 meal plan. 3 hots a day. All the pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns I wanted…ready & waiting! I was in heaven. But after a month of school I soon learned I could get up early to get that breakfast or ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…..

Guess what I chose?

In hindsite college destroyed my ability to eat early. I simply stopped having breakfast…period. And, knowing what I know now about people who eat breakfast (and a good one) being less likely to gain weight than those who skip, combined with, oh, about 20+ years of coffee and baked goods as my morning ritual and, well…..see my "Before" picture. That was the result.

Today breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day. Its a huge breakfast, a healthy breakfast, and I make it every morning from scratch. It used to take me an hour, but with some better time management techniques (getting as much out & ready the night before, packing the kid’s lunches for the whole week on Sunday) I got it down to about 20ish minutes this AM.

My Breakfast:

Supplements:
1 multi-vitamin
500mg of L-Glutamine (tablets)
1000mg B-12
1000mg Flaxseed Oil softgel
400iu vitamin D (fish oil derived)
500mg Chromium

And the fun stuff:
1 cup skim milk

3 organic pastured chicken egg whites
1 organic pastured chicken egg
(note - I’m lucky enough to live 2 house’s down from these! I get eggs just out of the organically fed, pastured chickens that day!)

1/4 cup pin head oats
1/8 cup raisins
1/16 cup almonds
1/16 cup walnuts
1 tbsp raw honey (OMG this is so good & so good for you! It doesn’t even TASTE like honey!)

6oz fat free plain yogurt
2 extra large strawberries
1 scoop whey protein

1 medium/regular pink/red grapefruit

22oz black coffee

BREAKDOWN:
Cals: 817
Carbs: 112.4
Protein: 66.4
Fat: 15.3

This is over 1/3 of my average day’s cals and around 40% of the total carbs for the day. It gets me GOING! And today I was able to use it to fuel my early workout, which went GREAT!

And those birds? I heard them at 4:15am. I BEAT THE BIRDS!
I beat the birds, beat time, beat my upper half in my workout, beat a lot of PRs, and then beat it to school & work. Michael Jackson ain’t got nothing on me…

I got the worm this AM, and as I sat there enjoying my breakfast & reading PMs from my new BB buds it occurred to me:

"Did you get the worm today, or did someone else grab it while you slept in?"

Ask yourself that the next time you think about the SNOOZE button. Is that other guy in the gym already 1/2 way thru his core work & going to lose his gut faster than you? Is that other women on her 3rd set of kickbacks & going to have "that booty" in her jeans at the club instead of you?

I got my worm. Go get yours tomorrow.

"Focus Hard, Work Harder, Keep Your Eyes On The Prize"

My 1st BodyBlog entry:

While creating my profile yesterday I plugged in what measurement numbers I had as of 5/23, and based on the way measurements were taken during "The Biggest Loser" program I was in. While I don’t have all the numbers that are options on Bodyspace this is what I was:

Where I was on February 4, 2008:
Weight: 268.8lbs
Body Fat % (digital scale in bare feet): 42.8%! (I was almost 1/2 fat!)
Chest: 48.5"
Arm: 15"
Waist: 48"
Hips: 46"
Thighs: 24.25"
Calf: 18"

Now the fun starts…

February 25, 2008:
Weight: 249.8lbs (down 19lbs in 3 weeks!)
Body Fat %: NA
Chest: 46"
Arm: 15.5"
Waist: 44"
Hips: 45"
Thighs: 24"
Calf: 18"

May 31, 2008:
February 25, 2008:
Weight: 224.2lbs (down 25.5lbs in a month!)
Body Fat %: NA
Chest: 43.25"
Arm: 15" (oppss…)
Waist: 41" (down 7" in 2 months)
Hips: 43"
Thighs: 24.5"
Calf: 17.25"

Its at this point my wife comments that I’m getting skinny "…from the ends in"…LOL!

April 21, 2008 (the "official" weigh-in at 11 weeks in):
Weight: 210.4lbs (down 57.6lbs in 11 weeks!)
Body Fat %: 18.4% (WHOA! Down 24.4%!)
Chest: 42"
Arm: 14"
Waist: 38.25" (Hey, a 3!!)
Hips: 41.25"
Thighs: 23.25"
Calf: 16.25"

June 1, 2008:
Weight: 195.4lbs (down 73.4lbs total & 27.3% of where I was!)
Body Fat %: 18.4% (I haven’t had this done since class ended. I would like to think that since I’m down 15lbs from that reading that its creeping up on 15%, give or take )
Chest: 40.75"
Arm: 14.5"
Waist: 34.75" (The last bastion of fat is starting to go!)
Hips: 38.5" (almost 6" of waist & hips gone since then!)
Thighs: 22.25"
Calf: 16.25"
Shoulder: 47.5"
Neck" 14.75"

Of the numbers I had to start with I have lost 31.5" inches total.

I saw my "Holy Grail" of a 1 on the scale on Thursday, May 15th when I took the picture that is my avatar. That is the 1st time I saw that number as the 1st number in my weight since it was also the 1st number in my age!!! I had been working with my nutritionist for over about 2 weeks by then. Since then I have increased my intake significantly as well as from a variety of sources and I’ve lost 4lbs since. I’m really encouraged by the inches off the waist & hips, and what the mirror says.

Its been an amazing journey thus far. I originally set as a goal a loss of 36lbs over the course of that program, but I shocked myself at how fast it came off. When I signed up for it, I decided then & there that I was making a 12 month commitment to a "new me" and that it would take 6 months to take it off & 6 months to put it back on….in a much more aesthetically pleasing manner! I’m almost 3 months ahead of schedule! So now the fun starts…..

I’m really focused, have completely changed my nutritional intake (the only processed foods I now eat are fat free yogurt & a local artisan baker’s multi-grain bread) and exercise every day.

To be continued….