BuffedWildCat’s BodyBlog

So far so good, I definitely made some progress! I’m actually more happy with the way I look than the actual numbers. I look much more defined than I did a month ago. So the bottom line is that over the past month I’ve lost fat, 1.05 lbs to be exact, and gained muscle, .55 lbs to be exact. So overall I would say my diet worked well, but now it’s time to take it up a notch and get this fat loss going more quickly. Now is the time when I will just be trying to RETAIN the muscle I have built whilst getting rid of the fat.

Here are the numbers:

Current weight = 136.5 lbs, down from 137 lbs
Body Fat = 18.79% (still a ways to go), down from 19.48%
Lbs of Fat = 25.64, down from 26.69
Lean Body Mass (muscle) = 110.86, up from 110.31

Overall I guess I’m pretty happy.

Brainwashing, also called thought reform, is considered by psychologists to fall into the sphere of "social influence." Social influence refers to all the ways that people can change other people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.Methods include:

• The compliance approach, which changes a person’s behavior without being concerned about their beliefs
• Persuasion, which aims for a change in attitude
• Education (also called the propaganda method), which tries to cause a change in basic beliefs

Brainwashing combines all of these approaches as a method of changing someone’s way of thinking without that person’s consent and often against their will. It requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject, so that the brainwasher can control the fulfillment of the basic human needs of the subject, including sleep, food, and bathroom use.

The target’s identity is broken down, and then replaced with another set of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that work in the target’s current environment.

Many experts believe, however, that even under ideal brainwashing conditions the effects of the process are most often short-term, and will eventually dissipate when the new identity ceases to be reinforced.

Dr. Mercola’s Comment:

This interesting piece from the Web site How Stuff Works describes the various forms of brainwashing — from the extreme to the subtle — and how they work or don’t to influence your opinions on all sorts of things.

The most extreme and invasive kind of brainwashing requires the complete isolation and total dependency of the subject. What concerns me here, however, are the more subtle forms of brainwashing that can affect your health in so many ways.

Take, for example, medical students whose opinions may be swayed so subtly that they’re simply more likely to err on the side of useless prescription drugs that have been marketed to them, because they’re easily influenced into believing the newest, greatest and, often, most expensive drug is always the best solution.

Also, if you haven’t read the classic article on our site about Why Americans Will Believe Just About Anything, please go there when you have a chance as it is one of the most widely read articles on our site.

This is why it is so important to have access to a variety of independent news sources that you can trust, so you can begin to start taking control of your health.

This is why I remind you often, taking ownership for your own health by addressing the underlying causes of your problems often produces dynamic results.

On Vital Votes, Elisha from Canyon Country, California adds:

“… people trust whatever their doctor says. Example: I recently had a miscarriage and opted to do everything ‘naturally’. I did, however, go to the emergency room towards the end to make sure everything was ok. It was. Then the doctor before releasing me said she was going to give me a shot and I could be on my way.

“I asked her what it was and she said some long name. Then I had to ask her what it’s for and she said to bring on contractions to ‘finish’ it. She really wasn’t much for giving me information and she was a little annoyed that I had questioned her. In the end she finally told me my body would do it naturally but his would just speed it up. I politely thanked her but said, ‘no thanks’. I don’t think she was use to hearing that.

“My point is that if I hadn’t been learning about these things on my own, I would totally have let her inject me with her poison. The other problem is (as stated by the article) these doctors believe it is for the best. Or at least that is the impression I got from this doctor. She really wanted me to take the shot.”

Other responses to this article can be viewed at Vital Votes, and you can add your own thoughts or vote on comments by first registering at Vital Votes.

©Copyright 2007 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.

In 10 more days I will be writing my 12 weeks out update.  So far my training and diet is going well.  I am holding steady at 136.5 - 137 lbs and I feel like I’m getting tighter all over plus I think I’m seeing some better definition in the mirror.  I sure hope SOMETHING is happening!  I’d hate to think that I’m eating the same foods day after day after day (with no cheating) and my body isn’t doing ANYTHING!!!  That would REALLY suck!  But anyway, yeah, I THINK I am losing some fat and gaining some muscle, I mean I am continuing to gain strength and I’m feeling tighter all over so I guess I would have to be adding the same amount of muscle as I’m losing in fat since my weight isn’t budging.  I’m not worried about that at this point, from everything I’ve read, maintaining my weight is a good thing at 16 weeks out.  I wouldn’t want to drop calories too soon and risk losing too much muscle so far out from the competition.  So anyway, I’m already getting nervous about the caliper readings in 10 days, I really hope my skinfold measurements have gone DOWN!!!  If not, I’m going to be SOO disappointed!  Stay tuned!

Well now since I’ve decided to give competing a shot, I wanted my beginning stats to be spot on so I had to make a few changes.  I mean I did measure them before, but I learned a few things since I did that, like, that my calves are bigger if I dorsiflex my toes instead of plantar flexing my toes (I think I have those two terms right).  So yeah, I updated some stats.  My weight had also been fluctuating, I suppose everyone’s does, and I had actually put down the higher number but after staying steady and basically averaging 2 lbs lower, I went ahead and changed that too.  I want my beginning stats to be as accurate as possible so that I can accurately assess the changes my body will be going thru as I prepare for this competition.  So anyway, stats should be accurate now.

K, so Sunday, Feb 18th, was exactly 16 weeks out from my very first bodybuilding competition.  Hubby took my bodyfat measurement (skin fold calipers 7 points) and we took some pics, which I’m not sharing right now cause I hate them, the flash washed out what definition I have and I’m too pastey white, and yeah, like they say, the camera obviously puts pounds on you cause I think I look chunky in the pics and I honestly don’t look like that in person, and what pisses me off most is we couldn’t get my abs to show up even tho both hubby and I could see all six of my packs plain as day!  This is exactly why I need professional pics done!  Anyhoo, so after the pics, which we retook several of them several times because I am still trying to learn how to pose correctly, we evaluated my physique.  We determined (I knew most of this before anyway) that I have no calves (no surprise there) and so I need to add mass to them, I need more hamstrings, and I need more upper back width.  I’m not surprised that I lack upper back width cause I always felt I needed more even before I became pregnant and I know I definitely lost some size during and after my pregnancy.  And well, looks like my lats lost some width, waaaahhhh!!  To top it off, I can only rarely make it to the gym, I workout on limited equipment that we have in our basement and we don’t have any kind of pulldown or pullup equip so I’ve been limited to doing rows.  So yeah, doesn’t surprise me that I need more lat width.  We will be getting a pulldown cable machine very soon though, thanks to tax refund money.  So I’ll have to make sure I hit my upper lats hard.  I honestly don’t know that I can even expect to gain any appreciable muscle mass in only 4 months and especially since I’ll be cutting hard to get ripped (hopefully) the majority of the time but I’m gonna do my best, that’s all I can do!  And with that, it’s time for me to go down in my basement and work my legs, time to hit my hamstrings!  I’ll be hitting calves too altho I also don’t have any calf equipment so I guess it’ll be whatever I can think up to exercise my calves, yeah, I know they definitely won’t be up to par by the time the competition rolls around.  Oh well, I do what I can with what I got.

that I can be back on some strict dieting for two weeks, not lose even half a pound, but then the day AFTER two weeks, all of a sudden I’ve dropped 1.5 lbs and then the following day another 1/2 pound.  I just think that is odd.  Has anyone else had the same experience?  And I mean this isn’t just a one time thing for me, it seems to be how I lose weight everytime.

Now I just hope this weight lost is FAT and NOT muscle.  Last time I really tried to lose I got down to 135 lbs but my dang bodyfat percentage stayed the same!!  ARRGGHHH!!!  I think I had my calories too low that time.  Anyway, we shall see I guess.
I tell ya, trying to get your body to lose fat when you’re already leaner than the average woman is a bear!  What’s even more frustrating is how strict I have to be just to maintain a measly 18% bodyfat!  And the thing is, I don’t compete or anything so I have to be on a strict diet INDEFINTELY just to STAY as lean as I want to be!  I just can’t believe how strict I have to be just to maintain at 18% GEESH!!  I’m sure it’s different for everyone, depends on your genetics and mine won’t even allow for me to stay at 18% bodyfat without having myself on a strict diet!  And of course now I’m trying to go leaner, last time I tried it I lost muscle and NO fat according to the caliper measurements!

Anyway, just venting my thoughts…

I would like to apologize to everyone who has private messaged me in this past year or two.  I have not responded to any of you and for that I am sorry, I hope you will accept my apology.  The reason I haven’t responded to anyone is that I have just been too busy with other priorities in my life.  We moved in January 2005 then I had my first baby June of 2005.  So I have not had time to be active on any bodybuilding forums.  These days I am kept quite busy with my 18mo old, keeping up with the housework, and finding time to get my own exercise in.  So I’m sorry to everyone who has asked for my help and I have not been able to give any.  I don’t foresee this changing any time soon, sorry.  I just don’t have the time these days to help and advise like I used to.  I use to spend A LOT of time typing up information to help people and taking care of everybody’s individual requests that I got via private messages and I just honestly don’t have time for that anymore.  So please accept my apologies and understand that I don’t have the time these days to help anyone individually.  Thanks!