ShreddedOne’s Blog.

I think I got things back under control.  I took some readings on my Tanita yesterday and it had me in the mid 10%s.  So that’s pretty good.  I want to get back into the single digits though.  I’ll take some readings later tonight or tomorrow.  This is the third day in a row I haven’t worked out.  Various reasons I won’t get into.  Back in the Gym tomorrow.  I’m jonesing for it.

I’ve been busy with school.  Things are hectic, kinda crazy.  Grades are pretty good, but everything is just kinda crazy.

I was taking in more calories the last couple weeks.  Working out most evenings.  Sure enough, I gained some weight.  However, my bodyfat readings went up.  Which would suggest I gained MORE fat than muscle.  The Tanita said I gained a few pounds of muscle, but since my bodyfat reading increased, that means I gained MORE fat.  I want to gain weight, but I want to be around 8% bodyfat.  I’m beginning to think I have two options.  I can weigh more, but I won’t be as lean.  Or, I can be lean, but I’ll be too light.  If I weigh 135, I might as well be a chick.  It’s pathetic.
The tanita is also saying that my bodywater % has gone down which suggests I may be dehydrated.  Being dehydrated makes the tanita think I’m fatter than I actually am.  (More water in my body means more water in my muscles which means more muscle mass which means a lower bodyfat reading.  Conversely, less water means lighter muscles, means less muscle mass, means higher bodyfat readings.  Anybody following this?  Am I making ANY sense at all?)  So, maybe I’m just a little dehydrated.  I certainly am bigger and it looks to me like it’s mostly muscle.  If I got fatter, I don’t see it because I have MORE definition than before.  Hmmm.  But still, seeing that bodyfat % go up is a little unnerving.  (It was at 11.4% the other day.)  So that freaked me out a little.  I’ve been restricting my calories a little bit the last two days.  Need to take another reading to see if the bodyfat readings are coming down or getting worse.

I want to gain muscle, but it seems like I gain 1.2 - 1.5 lbs of FAT for every 1 lb of muscle.  The last two or three weeks . . . I gained about 3 pounds of muscle but I gained about 4.5 pounds of fat.  Disgusting.  I’m going to try to shed the fat and hold onto my muscle gain.

Alright, busy, gotta go.  Hope everybody is doing well.

Go Mustangs.  Beat UTEP!!!!

I’ve worked out pretty hard the last three days in a row and was planning on taking today off to rest.  But I’m going to have to workout this evening afterall.  Why?  I was hungry after class.  Wanted something . . . beefy.  I thought the Jack in the Box SIRLOIN burger could be good.  It’s SIRLOIN so it should be pretty lean.  Went to Jack in your box, got the burger, ate it, got online to check calorieking.com to see how many calories the burger had.  I record my meals, calories, sleep, workouts . . . . So I get on the website, and look up the burger, 1120 calories!  73 grams of fat!  Oh SH*T!  So yeah, I’ll be hitting the weights heavy tonight.  I’m thinking squats.

A friend of mine and I are working out tomorrow evening, so I wanted to rest tonight to be fresh tomorrow.  We’re doing upper body tomorrow, so I’ll try to stick to lower body tonight.  NEVER eating another Jack in her Crack "sirloin" burger again. That’s horrible.  2.5 grams of transfat.  sick.  disgusting.  blah.

Rested yesterday.  Worked out tonight.  5 Sets Weighted Crunches, 5 Sets Weighted Back Extensions, 5 Sets Row, 4 Sets Pull Ups, 4 Sets Dips.  23 Sets Total in an hour.  Kinda Moderate pace.  I would do 2 or 3 sets FAST back to back to back.  My heart would be POUNDING, I’d be breathing kinda hard, so I’d rest a couple minutes.  Other times I’d do a set, rest a minute, do a set, rest 30 seconds, do a set, rest a minute . . . blah blah.

I’ve been mixing my NO supplements for the last week.  I have some NO Shotgun and some Trac Extreme NO.  So, one day I took half a serving of Shotgun and half a serving of Trac and combined them.  The taste is improved and it feels good.  My workouts have been pretty good while I’ve been doing this.

I took pics in July, I took pics in August, so I guess I should take some pics this month too.  I’ll try and do that soon.  Busy with school.  So far so good, but it’s tough just keeping up!  I don’t know what kind of results I or anybody else will see from month to month, I’m not expecting any visible changes so I don’t really see the point of monthly pics.  Every 6 months or every year?  Sure, there should definitely be some clear results or else I’m doing something wrong, but month to month?  Yeah right, if I’m lucky.

Enough of this.  Hope you’re all doing well.

I took yesterday off.  Worked out today.  7 Sets Seated Leg Press, 7 Sets Pull ups, 7 Sets Dips, 7 Sets Chest Flyes.  28 sets total in a little over an hour.  I would have gone faster but the weight room was packed when I went in.  I was surprised it was so crowded so late in the evening.  9 pm.  But it had thinned out by about 9:30 or 9:45.  I want some lean mass dang it.

That’s all.

Got in a good workout this evening.  A full hour.  Took the trac extreme NO.  Felt ZERO nausea this time.  I would NOT say the pump or energy was any better than NO Explode or NO Shotgun, but it was good.  Even though it doesn’t FEEL any better, it may still produce better results.  Or less results.

Did 5 sets Squats, 5 Sets Leg Extensions, 5 Sets Shrugs, 3 Sets Chin ups, 3 Sets Dips, 5 Sets Row.  26 Sets Total.  Got a caloric surplus today, plenty of protein.  Should get some results.  Feeling good.  Feeling GREAT actually.

Re dedicated, eating better.  Went grocery shopping with my girlfriend and we got some fruits and veggies, meat, protein bars.

That’s all.  Peace out.

I suppose as we get older, we get wiser.  It would be NICE if I could gain that wisdom quicker, but I’ll take what I can get.  I’ve been thinking.  It seems to be a pattern that in many different facets of one’s life, one must constantly RE-dedicate himself.

In relationships, we get used to our partners, we take them for granted, perhaps we don’t appreciate our partners as much as we used to.  We stop trying.  The romance disappears.  What do we do?  We must periodically RE-dedicate ourselves to that relationship.  We must start trying harder.  Let out partners know how much we care for them.   (or the relationship fails)
In our studies, the work becomes tedious.  We get tired of it.  We slack off a little bit.  Our grades start to slip.  What do we do?  We get our acts together.  We get our b*tts in gear.  We RE-dedicate ourselves to our studies.  (or we fail)
Since I started living healthier, I have noticed that my motivation for and attention to my goals, for any number of reasons, tends to ebb and flow.  I may get frustrated at a plateau, or become complacent in my success.  I may just get wrapped up in work or school, and eating right and lifting takes a back seat.  Every time, however, I have RE-dedicated myself and gone on to make more progress.  I "check myself before I wreck myself."  I RE-dedicate myself.  (or I would fail)
This is true in religion too.  We tend to stray.  We become self absorbed.  We get wrapped up in the material world and forget what matters.  We take for granted all our blessings.  We forget how lucky we are.  We cease to be grateful.  Our sincere Love for God dwindles and is all but lost.  I’m guilty of this, not to the EXTREME that I just described, but to a lesser extreme nonetheless.  What should one do when he reaches this point?  Pick up the Bible and read.  Pray.  Talk to your Father.  Re-dedicate yourself to God.  (or you will fail)

What are the lessons I’ve learned from my 25 years of experience on the planet?  In THIS CASE:
1. In ALL facets of our lives, our enthusiasm periodically wanes.

2. When this happens, we can either RE-dedicate ourselves and continue to succeed, or we can do nothing and let it (relationships, education, health, or faith) fizzle and die.

Conclusion:  In every facet of our lives, we must all periodically RE-dedicate ourselves, or resign ourselves to failure.

How is this relevant to the bodyspace website?   I’m at a point, again, when I’m going to have to RE-dedicate myself to living healthy.  My attention and focus has waned a bit.  I need to pay more attention to my nutrition.  That’s my current trouble spot.  I’m not getting the right number of calories.  I’m not eating enough of the right foods.  Too much questionable food, not enough fruits and veggies, natural foods.  I keep a spreadsheet of data to track my results.  Each time I have RE-dedicated myself or changed tactics, I’ve started a new spreadsheet.  (It helps me.  Seems like the thing to do.)  So, I’m RE-dedicating myself starting tomorrow.  New spreadsheet, it will be  . . . the 5th one?  I also need to make time to read the Bible.  I’ve REALLY been neglecting that.

By the way, I have a hunch most people on here see the word Bible, God, or Religion and roll their eyes thinking the poster is a nut, or a dork, or an idiot, but oh wells.  This is who I am, and you are who you are.  It’s MY blog and I’m going to write about stuff that relates to ME.  I thought the "RE-dedicate or fail" notion I had was interesting so I wanted to share it.

Alright, enough.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Peace out.

Worked out on the 5th.  Wrote about it on the 6th.

Was going to work out on the 6th, but intestinal problems prevented me from doing so.  Could Trac Extreme NO be the culprit?  Or am I just sick with something?  The Trac has creatine monohydrate.  I used to take the monohydrate and too much would give me severe . . . intestinal problems.  That’s one reason I don’t take the monohydrate anymore. I can’t believe some "advanced revolutionary miracle" product  would use something as old school and inferior as monohydrate instead of ethyl esther or something.  That being said, I just had a serving of the Trac.  LOL  I can’t be sure if this stuff is good or bad until I have more exposure to it.  So, even if I’m not impressed with it so far and I have my suspicions that it causes nausea and  . ..  intestinal problems, I must continue to take it before I can say anything conclusively.  It would be irresponsible to say a product is bad when I’ve only had it 2 or 3 times.  There could be other factors causing the problems.  Anyway . . .

Worked out this evening.  Last minute thing.  Gym was closing soon.  Only had about 15 - 20 minutes.  I didn’t have any supplements beforehand.  Decided to get in some leg work.  Worked my Glutes, Hams, Quads, and Calves.  Only had time for 13 sets, but 13 sets in 18 minutes is a pretty quick pace . . . right?  Not much rest time in between sets.  Pretty good workout.  Legs were all weak and wobbly afterward.  Hah.    I WISH I could have done more.  I had the energy this time to keep going (more energy than I had the last two workouts WITH the Trac supplement. . . Hmmmm).  Anyway, after the workout, drank some protein ate some semi blah trashy food.  Felt bad about the trash I ate today so I decided to take the Trac to up my metabolism and hopefully help prevent the trash food from turning to flab.  I’m also curious to see if taking the Trac this evening will cause me to have more  . ..  you know  . .intestin . .yeah.  Enough of that.
School:  Love it.  So happy.  Very Grateful and Lucky.  So far, so good.  Straight A’s.  Fingers crossed.  I’m at a good point in my life.  I know it won’t last forever, and I’ll go through hard times again.  But that’s okay.  I’ll accept that and work through it when / if it happens.  In the meantime, I’ll try to enjoy this time in my life and make the most of it.  Thank You, Lord.  I don’t deserve any of this.
Alright peeps.  Hope everybody is doing awesome.

Worked out again yesterday evening.  Used the Trac Extreme NO again.  I felt better than last night.  Significantly better, but still didn’t train like I usually do.  I think I lasted about 45 minutes last night.  During a set of Concentration curls, I burped up in my mouth.  I felt a little nauseous already and after the burp up incident, decided it was time to wrap it up.  I did some chin ups and dips and called it quits.  I’ll continue to use trac to determine it it’s the trac making me nauseous or something else.  So far, there seems to be a correlation between the trac extreme and lousy workouts, but it’s too early to say conclusively.

It’s a great time to be alive.  Hope everybody is doing well.

I dunno what happened.  I went to the weight room after 4 days of "rest".  I was excited to work out.  I WANTED to be there.  I WANTED to move some heavy weights.  . . . . But it just wasn’t happening.  Once I got started, I was feeling weak and lethargic.  I left after about 35 or 40 minutes.  Ah well.  Now that I think of it, it may have been due to a lack of sleep.  I also tried Trac Extreme NO last night.  Obviously, I can’t say anything good about the stuff since my workout s*cked.  I had a pretty good pump, but I usually do so I wouldn’t call that news.  I’m going back this evening.  We’ll see how it goes.

It’s good to be alive.  I’m very happy to be here.  Hope everybody is doing well.