LBR’s BodyBlog

I really LIKE doing the heavy weights with lower reps.  Just hit the gym, bang it out, and go on with your day.  

I did chest, back and abs yesterday and it was great.  I did modified supersets (two exercises, back-to-back with no rest in between) and even with 90 second rest periods, I was still done with the workout in 35 or so minutes!  And I was sore today - really felt it.  

I did biceps, triceps and shoulders today.  Each new set, I started out with the weights too low.  So, I did the reps till failure and then modified the weight upward on the next set so that I failed at 6-8 reps.  It was hard, but there’s something so satisfying about cranking out the heavy reps, especially when you know that you have only 6-8 to do.  Hammer curls with 30 lb weights?  No chance!  Oh yeah, there is.  Sweet.

I’d love your thoughts on this one.  So today, I started my "growth phase"; that is, heavier weights and lower reps.  Though I’ve been taking creatine after my workouts (5 mg), I decided that I would try loading it at 10mgs per day for 10 days to see how much impact it would have.  I use EAS’s Phosphagen, which is not pure creatine monohydrate, but also has dextrose, which is a sweetener that raises insulin in order to help transport the creatine into the muscle.  

The problem is -and I don’t know if it is related to the change in my program, the creatine loading or neither - I really crashed mid-afternoon.  (I worked out at noon).  Super drowsy.  Hasn’t happened to me in weeks and weeks, so I’m just trying to figure out why.  

Anybody out there have experience with creatine loading and whether drowsiness is a side effect?  Or moving from a high volume workout to a heavy, less volume workout and whether drowsiness is the body’s way of coping?  Or I wonder if the dextrose did it (though like I said already, I’ve been taking 5mg of post-workout creatine for weeks now).

As of today, I’m ONE MONTH into my transformation program!  It’s hard to believe that much time has gone by already, but here are the stats:  Weight, from 231 to 220.  Bodyfat, from 27.9% to 23.9%.  Waist, from 42 inches to 41 inches.  Hips, from 45.5% to 43%.  Lean body mass, from 166.5 lbs to 167.4.  Pictures, not much improved (yet).  

For the first time EVER, I’ve followed this diet to a T.  Actually, if I’ve done anything incorrectly, it’s to not eat enough a few days, particularly (and strangely) on the weekends.  Have not had a drink in 4 weeks, but I might have a beer just to celebrate tonight (I’m still debating).  

I’ve written down everything that I’ve eaten.  I keep an Excel file (I work in Excel all day anyway) and each day I copy a simple chart that tracks calories, fat grams, carbs, and proteins and start to fill it in.  A lot of people track this in their head using guesstimates or write it down on paper (or don’t keep track at all), but using an Excel file helps me make sure that I’m within the right calorie range and that I’m getting the proper amount of fat, carbs and protein.  I try to go for 20% of my calories from fat, 40% from carbs, and 40% from protein.  So far, I take in about 1.2 grams of protein per pound of lean bodymass.

My training so far has been interesting and I’m about to start a new phase.  The first week of my transformation was an "active recovery" week with just a few days of exercise.  The last 3 weeks have been the "loading phase" where I’ve been doing weights 5 days per week (I go during lunchtime during the workweek) and 4 days of cardio (Tu, Wed, Sat, Sun).  When doing weights, I tried to keep my reps between 10-12 (using a weight to failure) and the amount of sets slowly increased over the 3 weeks.  The first 2 weeks of the loading phase, my cardio consisted of HIIT on the treadmill for 20 minutes and during the third week, I increased it to 25 minutes per session.

The next 3 weeks, are geared more to strength and muscle growth in the "growth phase".  Heavier weights, reps between 6-8 and longer rest periods.  Should be interesting to see if any of my pictures change.

Haven’t posted in a while, but I’m still going strong on both my diet and training.  

I’m really excited that I’ve lost 7 lbs officially so far (I say officially because my weight changes based on when I weigh myself).  Happily, I’ve notched my belt one step tighter and my pants are feeling looser.  

But I know I’m far from done.  Besides my face looking a little thinner, I’m not sure that I look that much different.  And that’s important to me - I gotta look MUCH different than I started to consider this a success.  Abs, here I come!  Defined delts, bi’s and tri’s, come to daddy!

Today sucked.  My boss was in rare form today.  All day.  And for everything.  On top of that, I was supposed to go to a dinner with the senior execs tonight, including my boss.  Was really looking forward to it and it was also at a nice steakhouse.  But my boss "forgot" to include me in the email to all the senior execs asking them to meet up a certain time to walk over to the steakhouse.  That was the last straw.  There was no way I was going to go if I wasn’t wanted, so I begged off, saying I was sick and to give my apologies. 

BUT, I was still successful on my diet and on working out.  No cardio today (that was the plan) and I went to the gym at lunchtime as planned.  Turns out that my program is basically a  3 day rotation - I was doing the same exercises (plus one) that I did on Monday.  I increased weights on almost everything.

And despite the crappy day - and specifically evening, since that’s when I missed the dinner - I was really proud that I didn’t rush right out and eat something terrible.  I waited longer between my evening meals, but that’s better than eating fast food or snack cakes or something.  And I guess the consolation is that I got to eat what I wanted (and could easily measure) than stuff from a steakhouse.  I guess.

Leg day!  "Leg Day" used to mean a fried chicken sale to me a few weeks ago.

But no…today, I was focused on my legs and trying to make sure that it would be difficult to walk out of the gym.  I did cardio (treadmill intervals) this morning and at lunchtime, I went to the gym to do my leg workout.  I was a little surprised that there weren’t any squats as part of my program, but I did do leg extensions, leg curls, lunges, the "butt blaster", the leg press and calf work.

And while I was sweating and working hard, I didn’t limp out like other times I’ve worked out legs.  My workout was 65 minutes long - too long in my estimation - so I’m not certain if my rest periods were too long or if I just had more strength today.  Since it was a leg day and my program calls for cycling calorie consumption (that is, two days of slightly higher calorie intake), I decided that I would take some additional whey protein prior to my workout.  I’m going to monitor this one.  I’ll take the extra whey next time and shorten my rest period and work even harder and see what happens. 

And I’m learning that is what it’s all about.  Keep track of what you do (training and nutrition), see what happens, and modify as needed.  Test it out.  Not surprisingly, that’s what I have NOT done at other times I’ve tried to lose weight and get into shape.

Today, I was in the workout trenches.  Nothing particularly motivating today.  Nothing particularly interesting.  Just a day.  But the one thing that separates this Tuesday from so many others in my life is my focus on losing weight and getting in shape.  So, I got down into the workout trenches and got down to work. 

It helps that I have a schedule.  I know that at lunchtime, I am going to grab my gymbag, make sure that my post-workout protein and creatine are ready to go, and head to the gym.  No doubt about it, that’s what I am going to do.  It’s built into my schedule.  There’s not a moment where I say to myself, "Hmm.  Should I go today?"  I just go.

Today’s workout plan was for shoulders, biceps and triceps.  Not a bad workout.  I blasted everything, but really worked hard on biceps - went ’til failure on those, which I wasn’t really expecting.  I’ll feel it in the morning.

See ya.

Today was the first day of the Loading Phase, which means that I’m doing 5 days of weight training per week, with different body parts trained each day.  Today was chest and abs.  I sure can’t see my abs yet, but I definitely felt them! 

Actually, it was a rough day for training.  As most white collar guys can testify, sometimes the meetings and telephone calls can totally disrupt your day.  For me, a monthly meeting scheduled for noon and lasting for 2 hours made me rearrange everything.  I usually step out to the gym at noon-ish, since that’s the time most people expect you to be out getting lunch.  Instead, I went to the gym at 4:30.  But I adjusted.  And that’s what I’m going to have to keep doing to complete my transformation.

I was worried all week about a housewarming party I was supposed to attend on Saturday night.  How would I respond to the offers for drinks?  What would I do with the appetizers and finger food at the table?  Would I make it a "cheat meal"? 

It all went better than I thought.  I ate my fifth meal of the day shortly before we showed up at the party, so I wasn’t particularly hungry.  And while my wife had a glass of wine, I went with a sparkling water with a lime and ice.  Nobody noticed and I was just as happy to not have alcohol.  Not that there’s anything wrong with having alcohol, but it’s just counter to my desire right now to strip off the fat and add some muscle. 

Glad I’ve gotten up each morning this weekend to do cardio.  It does really provide some focus for the rest of the day.  You just don’t want to mess up by eating "off plan" since you put in the work already.  So, I think it’s been good.

We had ground beef in the freezer the other night and I decided to brown it all and use it for my meals.  Since I’m tracking my food intake by calories, fat, carbs and protein, I quickly learned that the 80/20 ground beef (that is, the ground beef that is 20% fat by weight) is something that I’d have to eat less of, portion-wise.  Bummer.

So, I had been taking some of that ground beef (a half cup, by the way, which shockingly turns out to be 272 calories) and combining it with a cup of brown rice or quinoa and another cup of cooked broccoli or green beans and topping the whole thing off with some ketchup and mustard.  Strange sounding, yes.  But after several days of grilled chicken, with some rice in a dry little pile off to the side next to the little separate portion of veggies, you begin to crave even rudimentary forms of recipe-ied foods. 

But today, in my rush to get out the door to work, I mixed together my ground beef, quinoa and green beans.  One cup, one cup, and one cup.  And just when I was preparing dinner (I was feeling lazy and hadn’t cooked anything else, so two of the same meals it was going to have to be), I realized that I had used a whole cup of ground beef instead of 1/2 cup!  For the average Joe out there, no biggie.  For Mr. Strict Diet, this was a major monkey wrench. 

Modification was the only answer.  One half cup ground beef, one half cup quinoa and a full cup of broccoli (which I did cook quickly).  Back on track for the day.  Finally.

But now, for the first time this week, the CRAVING for chips, cookies, something bad has hit.  And heading into the weekend, no less…

If you’ve read to the end of this - really, you did? - wish me well!