JesusReagan’s BodyBlog

I started a fitness program over a year ago, and began documenting here in my body blog.  From March of ‘07 to October ‘07 I went from 288 lbs to 252 lbs, and I had made some significant strength gains.  Mostly, I followed a typical bodybuilding diet, tailored some to align the diet with Bernardi’s Precision Nutrition and Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle. I stayed right around 35-45-20 protein/carbs/fat with the carbs being mostly fibrous.  Cardio consisted of the elliptical machine; I can’t run anymore due to 3 knee surgeries and a bum hip. I was lifting 4 days/week, all basic movements: squat, deadlift, bench press, dips, chins.  Thus, good progress was made.  At this point, I let the wheels come off.  I was put on a project that required me to be in Dallas (I live on the central coast of California) 2 weeks of each month, and I was working very long hours while there, and also while back at the home office.  I allowed myself to slide back into bad behavior; i.e, room service meals, not working out, and eating crap.  Now, here I am, back at 290 lbs and not feeling all that well.

My wife and one of my daughters have been after me to read ‘Skinny Bitch’.  I poo-pooed that idea; I have always had a disdain for anything smacking of vegetarianism and I couldn’t see what a couple of skinny women could teach me about nutrition and lifestyle.  I have always prided myself on having something resembling an open mind, thus I conceded that I was being prejudicial in ignoring the book, it’s just information that I can discard if I want, right?  So, I read the book, and I had to admit that there was a lot of common sense in the words.  I’ve always been an adherent of getting animal protein, but maybe I’ve been wrong.

The long and the short of it is that, after three weeks of mulling it over, I’ve decided to give the vegan life a try.  Seems as I have gotten older that I have lost much of my self discipline when it comes to health and nutrition.  Maybe it’s because I was overly obsessed with it for many years, or just that I’m compulsive.  I’m not sure, and why doesn’t really matter in the end.  All that matters is that I fix it. 

It’s been a long time between posts for me.  There’s not much motivation to post when all you can say is, "I have eaten a lot of pasta over the past week and gained 3 more pounds."

I will be much more diligent now.  Maybe I will get some motivation from all you good people.

Ok, I married off daughter #2 yesterday.  Two down, one to go   I learned a couple of things: 1) Don’t let the groom’s grandmother have a full bottle or wine unless supervised.  2) Don’t dance during the first month following knee surgery.

I can finally start walking again.  I will start with 1/2 mile for 4-5 days, then go up to a mile if the knee is ok.  I will hopefully be back on the elliptical in a month.

Been a week + 2 days since the knee surgery. I’m walking pretty well.  There is still some swelling, nothing unexpected.  Saw the surgeon yesterday, he thinks all looks good.  I’m going to lift for the first time tomorrow.  I won’t be able to squat/deadlift till August 1st, so I guess it’s just upper body work for me.

Yeah for me!  Arthroscopic surgery yesterday on my right knee.  Went well, the tear was big on the meniscus, but there was no extraneous debris floating around in there.  I can bear weight on it already, and, I confess to enjoy being stoned on vicodin .  Six more weeks, and I can squat/deadlift again yoooo-hoooo.

Doc’s office called, they had a cancellation, so my knee surgery is now set for 6/20.  Excellent!

I finally saw the ortho surgeon.  I have a pretty bad inside meniscus tear in the right knee.  Surgery is scheduled for 7/12/07, though I did have them put me on the cancellation list just in case.  No heavy lifting for six weeks after the surgery, so, by that time, I will have gone 16 weeks without doing squats or deadlifts.  Not good, but I’m just happy that it’s a fixable thing and I can get back at it in the future.

I *finally* had an MRI done on my right knee yesterday.  There’s a meniscus tear and a ligament tear, I could see that in the pics. I should meet with the doc next week to hopefully get a surgery date set.

This has been very frustrating, as I have now been unable to cardio, squats and deadlifts for a month.  Progress has slowed, though I still have lost two pounds and am sure that I have exchanged some bf for lean mass.  We will measure bf this weekend.

I can’t believe how long this is taking, I guess the Santa Barbara orthopedic community is overloaded.  Ten years ago, when I had my left knee scoped, the total time from injury to surgery was 10 days.  I’m at a month on this one and counting; seems a little absurd, but then, I know I’m anxious to get it fixed and get back on track.

We did pullups and barbell curls this morning.  I am going to do some grip work later this afternoon.  Sunday is the day that I do the grocery shopping, and cook!  I will bbq about 10 chicken breasts, 10 salmon fillets and smoke a turkey breast. And, I will make a couple of stews, plus salsa. Oh, and some protein potato burgers and turkey burgers, plus I will make a whole wheat, turkey sausage pizza for tonight.

This is our gym, in the garage.  I’m in the process of building a dip station, so I will be adding that in the next week or so. Left to right: that’s Abe the Mighty Wolfhound (lousy spotter but never misses a workout), the TV for that true gym feel, next is our wierd, $50 garage sale machine, then our dumbell rack, and last, our power rack.