Crossroads’s BodyBlog

So it has been a loooooooooong time since my last post! Things have been going on in my life lately that have kept me busy throughout the day and have taken their toll on my training. My wife and I had our second child on 09/27/2008 and the little man has kept me very busy. I am still hitting the gym early in the am (2:00 am) in an attempt to maintain until he is old enough to go to the daycare so i can get back on my normal schedule. As you can see from my sons date of birth I did not make it to the O this year as I had something WAY more important to do that weekend.

 I switched to a new Gym in town (FUEL Fitness) which is, by far, the best fitness facility in town and I have been pretty steady about my routine. For my original goals I wanted to get to 200 lbs before the Olympia this year and i got pretty close. On the day of the show I was around 195, but have recently lost a little weight and am currently right about 190. For the next few months I am hoping to just maintain what I have until I have the opportunity to get back and hit it hard at the start of the New Year.

 I hope that everyones training is going well and am excited to be back!

I am sooo tired I don’t know what to do with myself. For those of you who don’t know I currently work night (10 pm until 7 am) and then I care for my daughter during the day. I usually try to go to the gym in the mornings, but lately I have been going at 2:00 am during my lunch break. I think this has been a good change since my body is not used to working out at this time and I have been super sore. I have also noticed that since I am usually the only person in the gym that I get a lot more done in a faster manner.

Things have been good, but so busy lately. My daughter was the flower girl in a wedding last month and she looked absolutely adorable. The only problem is she is only 18 months old and when she was walking down the isle her little shoes got caught in the carpet and she took a face plant. I was impressed with what a trooper she was because she got back up and kept walking only to fall again after about 10 more steps. She got up again and continued to walk until she got to me at the end of the isle (I was so proud). I guess Abe Lincoln had it right when he said "Our greatest victories come not in never falling, but in rising everytime we fall.

 Workouts are going well and I have gained a lot of strength over the past few months (Bench up 15 lbs and squats up 25 lbs). My weight has dropped a bit thanks to the extra conditioning I am getting playing basketball and softball, but I think it is helping my shape. My knee is sore due to taking a line drive a few weeks ago, but it’s not so bad that I can’t workout. I am looking forward to a productive week.

I also received an e-mail from my first high school girlfriend last week. Amazingly we have been living in the same town for the past two years, but have never run into eachother. She is married and has three kids so I am hoping that my wife won’t be to upset if we get together and catch up (of coarse I wouldn’t want my wife meeting with her old boyfriends so who knows). Anyway I feel like I am rambling so I am just going to stop now and wish everybody a great week.

So I have noticed lately that for some reason I have been getting alot of unwanted attention from some of the women at my gym. I have been married for the last three years and I always (ALWAYS) wear my wedding ring. The funny thin os when some of these women see the ring it’s like a green light to flirt harder. Like they are going to win a prize if they get the married guy to do something stupid. I doubt that I am the only man who is having this problem, but where were all these ladies when I was single?????

Anyway, workouts have been going fantastic lately and I have definetly added some power in the last few month. All of my lifts have gone up and I am feeling 100% better. My shoulder is healing well and I am back up to using the big weights for military presses. I hope that everyone is hitting their goals and having a wonderful first day of summer!!!

First off I have to say that I hit home run number three tonight in softball (Not bad for five games). So i joined a new gym (Fuel Fitness in Helena, MT) and all I have to say is it’s head and shoulders above the other gyms in my town. The equiptment is all brand new, the place is super clean, and the staff are friendly (and hot!!!). I have been going to the gym at around 2:00 am for the past two weeks and am surprised at how well my body responds at this time. I suppose since I work at night my body is more rested and ready to work.

I have started a new program now that I have finally hit 190 lbs (hurray!!!!!) and I am hoping to reach my goal (200 lbs) by the end of august. My diet has been a little off lately, but I am determined to get it all straightened out.

My family and I will be going to North Dakota (on a train) at the end of the month for a wedding. My wife is going to be a brides maid (5 months pregnant, so cute with the belly) and my daughter, Maya, is going to be the flower girl. Maya is only 17 months old so this could be a challange. Her dress looks just like the brides gown and she is absolutely adorable in it. I might have to post some pics of her after the wedding. Anyway I am off to the gym so happy training to all and to all a good night!!!!!

So I have been back in the gym for the past 3 wweks and things were going great. I was starting to get my strength back and my weight was staring to climb steadily closer to that elusive (to me anyway) 190 lbs. I weighed in on 06/02/2008 and was at a solid 188 lbs right on scehdule to hit 190 before the summer starts and what happens. My daughter gets sick yet again and I am out of the sym for another week and change.

I don’t know if every gym has this problem, but it has been killing me to take my daughter to the daycare at my gym. Before I start ranting and raving I first want to say that this is nothing against the employees. Everyone who works in the daycare is absolutely wonderful and they are sooooooo good with my daughter. Second this has nothing to do with the how nice the gym is that I attends. Most of the time when I am there Mark (the coolest maintanace man ever) is there cleaning and sharing his insiht into the WWE. The problem I have been having is the fact that there are so many kids in the daycare and they never seen to turn kids away when they are sick. Half the time when we come in there are kids hacking up things that belong in science fiction, kids with runny noses, and kids with things that I haven’t even heard of. To top things off I come in around 11:00 am and pick up my daughter right before closing at 1:00 pm. When I come in the staff are usually just throwing the toys these kids have chewed on, snotted on, and peed on back into a bucket or putting them back on the shelf. Last week when I came in my daughter was chewing on a piece of plasti fruit from a toy kitchen. I took it away from her and set it on the counter to wash off. The staff member picked it up, before I washed it, and threw it back into the kitchen. I said don’t you want me to wash the spit off of that and the staff said no that’s ok.

I have since left the gym and have joined a 24 hour facility so that I can go at night istead of having to take my daughter in. I know that she misses going to the daycare and playing with the other kids, but I can’t keep taking her when I know she is just going to keep getting sick. So far in the past 3 months she has had 4 colds, pink eye, and 2 ear infections. Maybe I am just an overprotective father (Ok I know I am), but I feel better knowing that my baby is going to be healthy.

So I am finally back home and looking forward to a hard week at the gym. I have been traveling for the past three weeks and have had extremely limited time to hit the gym. First I have to say that MY RED SOX beat the Brewers in an extremely exciting game (Beckett pitched, 8 home runs, Papelbon closed). My sister went through her graduation from Vermont Law School and we are all extremely proud of her (time to study for the bar exam). And finally my good friend Rich came back to Montana to show his brother and some friends what the mountains and Yellowstone Aprk are all about.

For the past few weeks I have only been in the gym mayse 3-4 times so I have been feeling very tired. I have also been doing a horrible job eating clean and really need to get myself back on track. I will be headed back tomorrow and hopefully have not lost to much monmentum. I will try to post some pics from my trip soon and will be trying to catch up with my more motivated friends to see how their progress is coming. It’s good to be back!

So my softball season started last week with what I would call up and down results. In our first game I was one for two from the plate with a home run. We 10 runned the other team in the 4th inning and the game was called. In our second game it was about 30 degrees out and windy as all hell so I went 1 for 4 ans dropped 2 balls in the outfield (I don’t play well in the cold). I am looking forward to this week since it is supposed to be 68 and sunny for our next game.

As for the weight room things have been going pretty well. I am steadily increasing my weight and strength and have decided to move to a low weight high rep for the next two weeks to help with my swing and my speed. I am planning on applying for some coaching positions (track and field) next year with the local high school and may start some schooling to become a personal trainer so I can make some extra money. I hope that everyone here is having a great week.

I almost forgot!!! I will be traveling to Vermont next week to see my sister graduate from law school. We are also planning on going to Boston to see MY RED SOX play the Brewers at Fenway (Oh my god I just started drooling)!!! I am a huge Red Sox Fan and I can’t wait to see them play on the home field. I will check back after we return and post some pictures of our trip. 

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!!! On April 10th my daghter caught pink eye and I expected that I would be out of the gym for about a week. 12 days later and I have finally got myself back on schedule. I do have to say that the time off did me a ton of good (Lots of extra sleep) and I feel rejuvenated. Unfortunatly my diet was not so super during this time off and I have gained a few extra pounds that I don’t beleive includes a whole lot of muscle.

My training partner was sick today (WEIRD) so I was firced to fdo my first workout back solo. I completed a tough chest/bicep workout and then got on the treadmill for a 30 minute run.

Softball starts up this month and I am really excited. I led the team last year in home runs, OBP, and Slugging and now with a little extra muscle I am hoping for some big numbers. Check back soon for some pics (YES I have them I am just to busy to post them) from our workouts and some from softball. Have a great week everyone!!!!

My daughter cam down with Pink Eye so i am forced to take the rest of the week off. I think that the time off might actually be good for my body. I will hopefully be hitting the weights again on Monday!!

So I finally broke down and took a few days off from going to the gym. I was scared at first that taking this break would kill my motivation to workout. On the contrary I think it has rejuvinated me and I am excited to get back into the gym this week.

As you can tell from my previous posts i have been severly lacking sleep due to my work schedule and taking care of my daughter. This weekend I was way overdue on taking some time for myself so I pretty much did nothing but sleep, watch basketball (Rock, Chalk, Jayhawks!!!!) and and play a little softball. I feel a million times better and my body is thanking me.

Hopefully this will be a great week in the Gym, I’ll keep you all posted!!!!!