Jpodz’s Blog

We’re down to the wire with just 4 weeks left in this 12 week contest. I had made plans for a CA trip in late March to visit family and friends, so I will be ending the contest about a week earlier than everyone else. Also, the Arnold is next week so I will be spending about 5 days in Columbus, Ohio. I’m a little concerned with my eating habits during that time, but I got a few tips from people who I know have done this before.

I’ll be taking Dialene 4 in these final few weeks to help me cut down just a bit more. Having never taken a fat burner before, the Niacin really did a number on me. That’s the last time I ever take it directly before a hot shower, what a bad idea that was.

Now that I’m cutting back down, I can really start to see the results from my disaster of a bulking phase. Those 6 weeks of stuffing my face with pounds of chicken are really paying off. I think out of everything, I’m most please with the development of my chest. I can tell that I’ve added a lot of mass to it and I’m digging the results.

I’m about a month into this 12-Week Bodybuilding.com Employee Transformation Challenge, so around 4 weeks into my bulking phase. Being that this is the first time I’ve ever bulked, I think there is only one word to truly describe how I’m feeling…stuffed. The visibility of my abs is slowly fading away and, to be perfectly honest, it’s making me kind of depressed. I have definitely put on some much needed weight, but it’s leaving me feeling more and more lethargic after every meal, especially breakfast.

I’ll continue to surplus my calories for another 2-3 weeks before cutting it back down to the end of the challenge. Hopefully, as my body fat decreases again, I’ll be able to see some new gains in muscle, just in time for summer.

On a side note, I hit my legs a little different a few weeks ago, and it left me walking like a dinosaur for almost 5 whole days. It sucked at the time, but now that I think back, how funny must I have looked?

I’m starting to really understand the importance of switching up my workouts every couple of weeks. Last week, on my chest day I opted for barbell bench press as opposed to my usual dumbbells. The next day my chest was extremely tight and sore to the touch. I felt like it really made a difference to change out the equipment.

Yesterday I kept the barbell instead of the dumbbells and, although I don’t feel it as bad today, I still do feel a bit of tenderness. Maybe next week it’s time to go back to the dumbbells for a bit.

I’ve been feeling a little stressed out lately. Some unfortunate events have brought my spirit down a little and I’m not too sure what to make of it. Hopefully it will soon pass, but I’ve been thinking that I need a change. I’m considering taking some sort of training class, like boxing. Just something to kick up some dust in my life. I don’t really have a lot going on right now, so it would be nice to shake things up.

Plus, I enjoy competition.

BTW, I finally found my iPod a few days ago so I’ve been listening to music while I work out. I never understood until now how much motivation music can play. I seriously had it turned up as high as it would go the other day. What can I say? I like my Pantera loud.

I made it through my first full week of diet and training since I stopped a few months ago. Back then, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I ate the exact same foods for almost every meal. If I had one more bowl of chicken and brown rice, I was going to lose it. I think that’s why I could never stay on track. I just got so sick and tired of having the same foods over and over again.

But this time through, I’ve actually calculated my nutrient intake and am choosing foods that I actually semi enjoy. I still eat chicken and brown rice, but only one or two times a day as opposed to five. Yesterday, I figured I would switch it up a little bit and change out that chicken for 4 oz of lean ground beef. I enjoyed it very much.

I think today I’ll have another 4 oz but change it out with some whole wheat pasta instead of brown rice. It’s nice to be able to switch up foods so I don’t get sick of having the same things over and over again.

And I’ve made it to the gym every day this week (Save for Monday, but Monday’s are the day I need to pick up my daughter right after work so I usually make that a rest or light cardio day). My muscles are killing me from head to toe, and I love it.

I have a scheduled cheat meal coming up tomorrow night, but I’m not sure I actually want to take it. I’m afraid that if I take a cheat meal tomorrow that I might be tempted to cheat more often, which is not what I want. On the other side, if I skip it, I may be setting myself up for a giant binge later on next week. Hmm…

What to do?

On a side note, I owe a great deal of motivation to my friend Adina, who’s daily blogs are incredibly insightful. I’m considering competing because of her constant pushing to do things we may regret not doing ten years down the road, she calls it the "Ten Year Stamp".

Alright, so here’s the first of many…

Supplement 

About a week ago, Mr. Marc "The Machine" Lobliner and Mr. Derek "Beast" Charlebois visited Bodybuilding.com for their second SciVation Smackdown chat on our Justin.tv video show. They left behind a slew of free supplements in our break room. So being the greedy little fellow I am, I decided to snag a tub of VasoCharge.

Yesterday afternoon after work, I ran home before my workout and downed 10 oz of water with 1 scoop of VasoCharge. Before even leaving my house to go to the gym, I began to feel it working. My muscles (or lack of) jittered as if trying to tell my mind to hurry up and get to the gym before they exploded with anticipation.

Workout 

My workout yesterday was one of the most intense I’ve had in a really long time.

• Lat Pulldowns: 3 x 10
• One Arm Dumbbell Rows: 3 x 10
• Seated Cable Rows: 3 x 10
• Barbell Curls: 3 x 10
• Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 3 x 10

Last week, my fiancée and I decided to call it quits. We’ve been together for almost 5 years, but for personal reasons, it all ended. So I was feeling pretty crappy for a while, and it showed through my poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Granted, it was only for a week, but it took a toll on my body. I still feel like laying at home with the lights off and sleeping for a couple days, but I know that’s how you end up on the road to obesitytown USA.

So today, I’m right back on the healthy living and am using all of my built up anger and frustration in the weight room. Here’s my brand new diet. I have never tried something like this before, so it may require some bends and tweaks here and there. Let me know if you see anything that should be changed…

Diet

Meal 1: 1/2 Cup Oats (Measured Dry) + 10 Oz Skim Milk + 1 Scoop ON 100% Whey

Meal 2: 1 Medium Orange + 6 Oz Yogurt

Meal 3: 3/4 Cup Brown Rice + 8 Oz Chicken Breast

Meal 4: PowerBar

Workout

Meal 5: 8 Oz Chicken Breast + Green Veggies

Meal 6: 10 Oz Skim Milk + 1 Scoop ON 100% Whey

Training

Monday: Biceps & Triceps

Tuesday: Legs & Abs

Wednesday: Shoulders & Back

Thursday: Chest & Abs

Because of the schedule with my daughter, I can only train 4 days a week. But I think if I play my cards right, I should be able to see some decent gains. I’ll do cardio every morning before work, 2-3 mile run. And a 2 mile walk with my daughter through the park on Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Towards the beginning of last week, I started to notice my ankle was beginning to send a sharp pain up through my shin. So I decided to give my training a rest for a couple days. After all, what could 3 or 4 days missed out of 10 weeks hurt? Well after the 4 days, I tried running on it again, and needless to say, nothing changed. I have now missed a whole week and a half of training and it still hurts to run on it.

So it looks like my marathon running days are put on hold, at least for now. I still want to run, but with Fall almost here and Winter peeking it’s evil little head around the corner, there is no way in hell I am running in the snow for 10 miles. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up a marathon next Spring, but for now I’m going to concentrate on healing this dreaded ankle pain and go back to hitting the weights harder than ever.

It kinda sucks, I really enjoy running. It gives me a chance to be on my own for an hour or so, which allows my to be alone with my thoughts. Just me and Judas Priest/Megadeth/Iron Maiden/Motorhead/Some other form of heavy metal blasting on my iPod. It’s a pretty good good ride.

Yesterday began my second week of training. I ran a, what should have been easy, 2 miles. I say it should have been easy, because if I had any common sense, I would have waited until the later afternoon to begin running. But, being the genius that I am, I decided that it would be alright to run at 3:00 in the afternoon when it was blistering hot outside. I’d say it was well over 100, but I’m not sure. I was still able to finish in under 20 minutes though, so that made me pretty happy.

Here’s my training schedule for this week…

• Monday: 2 Miles
• Tuesday: 3×12 Minutes, 2 Minute Walk Breaks
• Wednesday: 30 minutes Walking
• Thursday: 25 Minutes
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: 8.5 Miles, 2 Minute Walk Breaks Every 20 Minutes
• Sunday: Cross-Training

Last week, I was able to complete 8 miles on Saturday in 1.5 hours. I’m learning a lot as I go along, but I found that I can push myself pretty far.

Everyone has one of those "Man, what a dumb thing to do…" kind of moments, right? Well mine was yesterday. If you take a look at my running schedule, you’ll see that I had to run for 20 minutes keeping at a pace of 9 minutes per mile, which would bring me at a little over 2 miles in 20 minutes. Well, I use a pedometer to calculate my distance because I usually run on a curvy road, which would be difficult to accurately judge the distance with a car. So after my run yesterday, my pedometer said I only ran 1.6 miles in 20 minutes, which is a terrible time.

So, needless to say, when I got home I was feeling pretty crappy because I had really pushed myself during the run. It took me a full 2 hours to realize that I forgot to change the stride distance on the pedometer. So, in layman’s terms, because the pedometer judges distance by my steps, and there are definitely less steps in running than walking for the same distance, I had an incredibly inaccurate distance reading on my oh-so-trusty pedometer. Good thing too, because I was quite upset that it took me 20 minutes to do a mile and a half when my best mile is 8 minutes.

Today is a rest day, and boy do I need it…

So I’m about half way finished with my first full week of training. Some easy runs here and there, even a light 30 minute walk yesterday to let my legs recuperate from the previous days. My training for this week has (and will be) like this…

• Monday: 2.5 miles at 11 minutes per mile.
• Tuesday: 3×10 minutes at 10 minutes per mile with 2 minute walk breaks.
• Wednesday: 30 minutes of walking.
• Thursday: 5 minute warm up walk, 20 minutes at 9-10 minutes per mile, 5 minute cool down walk.
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: 8.5 miles with 2 minute walk breaks every 12 minutes.
• Sunday: 1-2 hour hike.

As the weeks progress, my training will become more rigorous. I’ll keep you updated. On a side note, I got myself a new pair of running shoes. My endurance has gone through the roof and my calves don’t hurt as much after runs. I’m now sporting a new pair of Nike Air Pegasus’ with a new found love for running.

Although I am training for a marathon, I found that running also helps with stress relief. I usually train directly after work, which leaves me feeling much more relaxed and tranquil than before. It gives me time to be alone with my thoughts and let them go as each foot hits the pavement.

I think I have finally found my niche…