Palespyder’s BodyBlog

So I decided to take a few days off from posting here and it was actually a bit helpful. I just took awhile and worked on my diet and continued with BfL and everything seems to be kicking in now. I also started taking ARLI Venom Hyperdrive as a little push in the fat burning department and I am going to be sending my data back to Team Scivation to get a workout and diet routine for after I am done with BfL. Things are looking up and it is due mostly to the support of folks here.

Thank you all for you words of encouragement in PMs and I will just keep on going until I reach my goal!

I am not sure what is happening. I follow the exercise and diet of BodyforLife and make a small stride of 2lbs, then I take my cheat day and gain back 4lbs… WTF is that? I did not even cheat that big, I had a burger with no bun, and a small portion of potato salad. I am just hella discouraged this morning.

I keep adjusting my diet, here is what I currently am eating.

Breakfast: Protein Shake with Skim Milk or Egg Beaters
Snack: 1 Apple

Lunch: 6oz Turkey, 2tbls Light Mayo, 2 Pieces of Whole Wheat Bread

Snack: 1 Apple
Dinner: Chicken Breast, small salad with 2 tbls light/fat free ranch

Dropped the lentils out of the diet completely, they were tearing my lower intestine up and I had to quit eating them. I have replaced the protein in them with a Shake, I should probably do one in the evening as well. I emailed Nick Edge to see about doing a diet plan, we will see how that pans out, that guy has got to be super busy.

I added a couple more exercises to my upper body workout this morning. I read somewhere that "open arm curls" work either a different part of the bicep or a separate muscle all together, but that it gives your bicep a fuller appearance instead of the ling slender look that my bicep was starting to take, gave it a try and my arms blew up, much fuller and "thicker", though this might be a side effect from the added reps and not the exercise, I don’t know.

I also added a "twisting forearm" exercise on the advice of another fighter. It is a weighted exercise where you stabilize the elbow on your thigh, seated, and twist your hand back and forth, once right and once left being a rep. Seems to really work the stabilizer muscles of the wrist and forearm, I think it will be a good sports specific exercise.

I am also adding a could sets on the cable machines, I can do some really fighting specific stuff in there, it is just a matter of building myself up to it.

I am still sitting at 274lbs as of this morning, I cannot seem to get past the plateau of 270. I am not sure what I am doing wrong and could really use some advice as to whether my diet is shite or the exercise I am doing for cardio is insufficient, I know dropping weight will help me look better and feel better and while I would like to do a cut diet, I don’t believe that to be very healthy or kind to your body, if you have any advice let me know.

I should be back in armour this weekend, I have been doing pell work as much as possible and thought I would be fine, but doing pell work without gauntlets on makes your a freak god with a sword, you put that extra 1-2lbs on each hand and you get sluggish as all hell with sword shots.  I started working out with gauntlets night before last, so we will just have to see if I can get myself sped up enough to be effective.

This morning was the first time I had done the suggested cardio from the BfL website. Before today I had half-assed it and did my own Interval workout of walk-run, walk-run and felt I was not doing enough. Today I proved it, the BfL workout of constant ramp up and ramp down of resistance on the stationary bike kicked my ass. I was exhausted by the final round after 20 minutes and felt as though I had really done something this morning. I think I will stick with the BfL way and quit trying to n00b my way through this shit, take the proven routes and quit trying to make stuff up.

I am also dropping the lentils from my diet, I replaced the protein loss with a low carb protein shake with 26g of protein. It also has creatine and a host of other supplements in it that I think will help me along the way as well, the lentils are just to caloric for trying to lose weight fast.

I also started taking Opti-man and though it is 3 horse pills, I feel fantastic in comparison to what I was taking before. I feel stronger and though my body stays "hot" longer then it did before when I was cooled down long before I got to work, now it’s 10:30ish before I start cooling down. I like it.

Did legs this morning, I am still feeling it 3 hours later, kinda shaky and stuff on my feet. I still don’t know if I am doing enough or not. I do Calves, Quads, Hams, and Abs twice each with different exercises. I need to find something to work my groin and glutes that will blow them up and. I think so long as I keep going I will get big, but I am getting impatient I guess.

My arms are still sore, though not overly sore, from Saturday’s workout, I really lifted hard on Saturday and I think I will probably use that day to push myself as I have all the time I need.

So I did arms this morning for the second time. I really blew up my triceps this morning. For some reason they did not want to cooperate this morning and well, I forced them to see things my way, I am now paying for that. I did my whole upper body workout, but I cannot help but think I am not doing enough. I am working each muscle group with 2 exercises list BfL tells me to, but my chest, lats, and delts are never sore while the rest of me is wore the hell out (shoulders, biceps, forearms). Am I just not doing enough for those groups?

My diet has gotten a bit better, I am still having hella problems with cheating. I keep trying to justify it as I am only eating about 1600 calories a day, which is a deficit of about 600 from what all the calculators say I should be eating anyway. I am trying to reprogram my brain that a 500 calorie ice cream bar is a horrible thing and I should not be eating it, but by the time I realize what I am doing, I have eaten the whole damn thing sometimes, WTF is that?

BfL seems to be a pretty good workout, I am already starting to feel my sleeves getting tighter around my biceps and I feel 10x stronger then I did before. I am eating healthy, low fat, high protein foods and mostly complex carbs, I am going to start using flax seed this weekend to get some healthy fats in there as well.

So, if you have suggestions for me please don’t hesitate to comment, I need all the help I can get, I am exercise stupid.

Built a new spreadsheet to track my diet, I put it up on Google docs for accountability, more to myself then anyone else, but it lets me break it down into percentages (Fat, Protein, Carbs) and tells me total calories and such for the day. I am hoping this will help me to design a diet that will work for me.

I ate a peanut butter cookie this morning justifying it with "{it’s only one small package of cookies) and I had some sunflower seeds, yeah that pushed me up by 400 calories in just 2 small packages, guess I will be bringing more apples and such to eat instead.

Anyway the spreadsheet is at

if you want to check it out, I will most likely be revising and adding to it as time goes on.

Did my legs today, the BfL workout is definitely designed to work the crap out of all the muscle groups. I am still feeling really weak in my legs, but I know that I will eventually get stronger. Busy day, not much time to write.

Today was a cardio day, I have been doing run a lap, walk a lap on the track at the Y, sometimes I will run 2 and walk 1 which is what I am working up to. I am working toward 2.5 miles non stop with sprinting in the curves of the track, we will see.

The only thing I don’t like about cardio is it gives me time to think about the people I have lost, and the mistakes I have made. This morning was a toughy as I cannot stop thinking about my son, just having a rough time because the anniversary of my accident is coming up and every year I get a bit crazy around this time. A person is just not supposed to outlive their children. You have certain expectations, one of which is that you will see your son grow to manhood and become a better man then you are, I do not have that luxury and it sucks.

He would have been 13 this year, I imagine him as I believe he would be, a rebel without a clue, breaking hearts, his only passion skateboarding being the only thing that really matters to him. I see him in a constant struggle with himself for the superiority of the rebel side of his Psyche against the sensitive person that he actually is. I see him much as I was when I was a kid and I feel angry for not being able to talk to him and teach him how to be a man.

Anyway, sorry for the whining, been a rough morning…