TheLostAlaskan’s BodyBlog

So after getting sick and tired of morning cardio in the gym, I finally got motivated to drive across town this morning to climb the local hill/mountain on the east side. I’ve just been getting sick of the tread mill/ elliptical/ row/ stepper business and figured that it could do my system some good to really shock it with heavy cardio on an empty stomach.

I actually started my cutting this summer by making the drive every day to do that climb and it really helped kick start my progress. It probably contributed to 70% of those first 15 pounds so I don’t know why I didn’t think to go back and pick it back up when the weight started to get stubborn.

I’m going to try to head back over there tomorrow morning too. It’s a great feeling to get a really kick ass cardio workout in the outdoors and it passes the time way quicker than the gym machines. I timed myself at 1 hour and 1 second (not even kidding… one second over an hour) to get to the saddle of Mt.Elden which is great considering that my last “record” from the beginning of summer when I was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now was around 1 hour and 8 minutes. We’ll see if tomorrow I can’t break that one hour mark. It really pissed me off to be that insanely close today, but I guess that it gives me a reason to go kick it again.

This isn’t something that I’ll be able to stick with because I start training for work on the tenth (six days from now), but it’ll be a nice way to revamp my progress until then.

The diet change has been great too. I’ve been tracking calories over the past five days and realizing that I really needed more so I’ve been very slowly upping my intake to a more comfortable level. I feel a lot better on the new diet and although it’s really too soon to say with any confidence, I think that I look better as well. I suppose that when the month continues on I’ll be able to say more for sure.

Alright. I have to jet. People trying to talk to me while I’m writing this which makes it difficult. I’ll write again soon.

TheLostAlaskan: Out

So after getting sick and tired of morning cardio in the gym, I finally got motivated to drive across town this morning to climb the local hill/mountain on the east side. I’ve just been getting sick of the tread mill/ elliptical/ row/ stepper business and figured that it could do my system some good to really shock it with heavy cardio on an empty stomach.

I actually started my cutting this summer by making the drive every day to do that climb and it really helped kick start my progress. It probably contributed to 70% of those first 15 pounds so I don’t know why I didn’t think to go back and pick it back up when the weight started to get stubborn.

I’m going to try to head back over there tomorrow morning too. It’s a great feeling to get a really kick ass cardio workout in the outdoors and it passes the time way quicker than the gym machines. I timed myself at 1 hour and 1 second (not even kidding… one second over an hour) to get to the saddle of Mt.Elden which is great considering that my last “record” from the beginning of summer when I was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now was around 1 hour and 8 minutes. We’ll see if tomorrow I can’t break that one hour mark. It really pissed me off to be that insanely close today, but I guess that it gives me a reason to go kick it again.

This isn’t something that I’ll be able to stick with because I start training for work on the tenth (six days from now), but it’ll be a nice way to revamp my progress until then.

The diet change has been great too. I’ve been tracking calories over the past five days and realizing that I really needed more so I’ve been very slowly upping my intake to a more comfortable level. I feel a lot better on the new diet and although it’s really too soon to say with any confidence, I think that I look better as well. I suppose that when the month continues on I’ll be able to say more for sure.

Alright. I have to jet. People trying to talk to me while I’m writing this which makes it difficult. I’ll write again soon.

TheLostAlaskan: Out

So after getting sick and tired of morning cardio in the gym, I finally got motivated to drive across town this morning to climb the local hill/mountain on the east side. I’ve just been getting sick of the tread mill/ elliptical/ row/ stepper business and figured that it could do my system some good to really shock it with heavy cardio on an empty stomach.

I actually started my cutting this summer by making the drive every day to do that climb and it really helped kick start my progress. It probably contributed to 70% of those first 15 pounds so I don’t know why I didn’t think to go back and pick it back up when the weight started to get stubborn.

I’m going to try to head back over there tomorrow morning too. It’s a great feeling to get a really kick ass cardio workout in the outdoors and it passes the time way quicker than the gym machines. I timed myself at 1 hour and 1 second (not even kidding… one second over an hour) to get to the saddle of Mt.Elden which is great considering that my last “record” from the beginning of summer when I was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now was around 1 hour and 8 minutes. We’ll see if tomorrow I can’t break that one hour mark. It really pissed me off to be that insanely close today, but I guess that it gives me a reason to go kick it again.

This isn’t something that I’ll be able to stick with because I start training for work on the tenth (six days from now), but it’ll be a nice way to revamp my progress until then.

The diet change has been great too. I’ve been tracking calories over the past five days and realizing that I really needed more so I’ve been very slowly upping my intake to a more comfortable level. I feel a lot better on the new diet and although it’s really too soon to say with any confidence, I think that I look better as well. I suppose that when the month continues on I’ll be able to say more for sure.

Alright. I have to jet. People trying to talk to me while I’m writing this which makes it difficult. I’ll write again soon.

TheLostAlaskan: Out

So after getting sick and tired of morning cardio in the gym, I finally got motivated to drive across town this morning to climb the local hill/mountain on the east side. I’ve just been getting sick of the tread mill/ elliptical/ row/ stepper business and figured that it could do my system some good to really shock it with heavy cardio on an empty stomach.

I actually started my cutting this summer by making the drive every day to do that climb and it really helped kick start my progress. It probably contributed to 70% of those first 15 pounds so I don’t know why I didn’t think to go back and pick it back up when the weight started to get stubborn.

I’m going to try to head back over there tomorrow morning too. It’s a great feeling to get a really kick ass cardio workout in the outdoors and it passes the time way quicker than the gym machines. I timed myself at 1 hour and 1 second (not even kidding… one second over an hour) to get to the saddle of Mt.Elden which is great considering that my last “record” from the beginning of summer when I was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now was around 1 hour and 8 minutes. We’ll see if tomorrow I can’t break that one hour mark. It really pissed me off to be that insanely close today, but I guess that it gives me a reason to go kick it again.

This isn’t something that I’ll be able to stick with because I start training for work on the tenth (six days from now), but it’ll be a nice way to revamp my progress until then.

The diet change has been great too. I’ve been tracking calories over the past five days and realizing that I really needed more so I’ve been very slowly upping my intake to a more comfortable level. I feel a lot better on the new diet and although it’s really too soon to say with any confidence, I think that I look better as well. I suppose that when the month continues on I’ll be able to say more for sure.

Alright. I have to jet. People trying to talk to me while I’m writing this which makes it difficult. I’ll write again soon.

TheLostAlaskan: Out

So this new routine… holy crizap. I hate to say it, but now that I’ve shifted my program around completely, I may be coming to the realization that last month was just one big long lesson that I had to learn. I don’t want to go so far as to say that my training in July was totally out of wack because I did make some progress, but when it got down to the end of the month and I took pictures/measurements to compare with the beginning of the month, it just didn’t measure up to my expectations. Progress was made, but it just wasn’t what I should have gotten out after all I put in. That said however, I’m going to chalk it out to be a learning experience.

Now that I’ve turned things around and started this new program, I have to admit that one of the biggest mistakes that I probably made was not taking the time to really track my caloric intake. I was all over the carb counting and keeping that cycle straight, but in hindsight, I think that my protein intake ended up negating some of the progress that I probably could have had if I’d taken a few days to (I hate to say it, but) count my calories. I hate being a calorie counter, but I have to admit that it’s something that you really do need to know if you’re going to make progress. I’ve been tracking my eats the past few days now that I’m on the new eating routine just to see where I stand in the event that changes need to be made and it’s made me aware that if I’d done the same last month, I would have seen that the total calories that I was probably getting were just too high. After all of those hours that I spent on cardio, it hurts to say that if I’d just cut out some of the volume from my meals, I could have cut that cardio in half and got the same results.

As for cardio on the new routine, I’m starting off a lot slower. I’ve changed back into HIIT rather than the monotonous cardio that I was getting last month. HIIT has given me great results in the past and I don’t know why I didn’t think to use it more earlier in the summer. So that said, I’m only doing about 30-45 minutes of cardio a day, but it’s a little different style so I’m hoping to see results from it. I don’t want to jump the gun too quickly since I’ve really just started the month, but I already feel better and I may even look better. That could in fact have to do with the fact that my muscles were “flat” from the low carb intake last month. Regardless though, I’m in much higher spirits and I’m very excited to see how the results change as the month goes on. This said however, my schedule is about to get way crazy when I start training for the new job on the 10^th so we’ll see how difficult life becomes at that point, and of course it won’t be easy once I start teaching on the 24^th. I’m hopeful though and motivated as all hell.

Thanks to all of y’all who have been commenting and to anyone who has taken the time to read my random thoughts about fitness for today. I’ll let you go now, but stay in touch, I’ll be dropping updates as they come in.

TheLostAlaskan: Out.  

To be completely honest, I was going to wait until Monday to start the new routine, but after the past two and a half days of realizing that I go bat s**t crazy when I can’t workout, I’ve decided to pick it up tomorrow. I’ve finally got the new photos and stats loaded up. No huge “transformational” changes, but there are differences that I’m happy to see.

As for the new routine, I’m going to be hitting cardio in the a.m. before breakfast which is actually what I’ve done for most of my years as a gym rat, but have shifted out of since mid 2008 and I’ll be hitting a new weight routine in the afternoon probably around three o’clock. I’m also going to be shifting away from the two body part a day split that I’ve been on for a while now. First off, it has absolutely kicked my ass to pudding and second, I just need some change. The routine that I’ll be starting tomorrow is one part a day (Tri, Bi, Delt, Pec, Lat, Leg). I may modify that at some point, but that’s what I’m going to be starting with.

As for the diet, I’ve officially ended the God awful 150-100-50-50 carbohydrate cycle that I’ve been on for the past month. I’ve actually been really relaxing on my intake the past two days and although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “cheat eating” it has been a lot less restricted. I figure that my system could use it and in all honesty, I feel a lot better. Now that I’m over the July cycle, I think that I’m just going to go for a non cycle diet that sticks with moderate/low carbs, low fat, and high protein. I might shift up some of my meals too since the timing is going to have to change to make up for the shift in lifting time. It’s like I always say though, make a routine your own. It has to evolve with time and that’s exactly what I expect will happen here. I figure that most of the changes can be tweaked within the first two weeks and as that goes along, I’ll probably document it on here.

That’s it for now though. Thanks for reading.

TheLostAlaskan: Out

Alright, well let me just start off by saying that as of last night I was really feeling like I had hit a wall. I’ve been sticking strong to my carb cycle and exercise routine for over a month, but it was just starting to wear on me. I wasn’t getting jacked when I stepped into the gym and basically body building was becoming more of a chore than anything else. So as of last night I decided that things needed to change. It was inevitable since my schedule is about to get filled up with work training, but last night was when I made the choice. So I decided that I would finish out the cycle that I’m (three more days) and then make some changes.

So with that in mind, I stepped into the gym this morning not expecting all that much, but somehow the stars aligned. I did do one thing different. Usually I just take Superpump 250 before lifting, but today I added Lipo 6X to the mix because I had a sample pack and I knew that I was going to need the extra kick. Well, apparently (for me at least) the combination of Superpump 250 and Lipo 6X is the holy grail because I can say that right now I know what it must feel like to be on steroids. As soon as I started lifting I knew that it was going to be a good day, but I had no idea how much.

To keep it short and sweet, every single set I did had a gain in either weight or reps. In all, I would say that there was an increase of about 15-25% on every move. It was insane. To make it even more surprising, yesterday was my low carb day so I was running on only 50 grams of carbohydrates! I really just can’t say enough of how amazing it was in there. Without question, it ranks amongst the top five workouts of my entire life (if not number one). I was so smoked by the end that I didn’t even do the cardio that I had planned. I could barely walk from all that I put into the lifts. I think that I’ll drop back in this afternoon and get some rowing in, but nothing serious.

As for the changes that I’m going to be making; As of tomorrow, I’m going to get off of the carb cycle that I’m on. I’m going to go ahead and take measurements then and upload pictures two days early. For my diet, I’m going to up the carbs, cut back on protein (only a little though) and add in some EFAs where they’re missing in my current program. Instead of cycling carbs, I’m going to try to stay on a consistent schedule and see how it changes my body and lifting stats. If changes need to be made after a couple weeks of the new routine, so be it. I’ll rethink things once I get there.

For the gym time, I’m going to change to a split that I used about a year ago that gave me great results. It focus on one muscle group per day and cycles every five or six days: Bi, Tri, Delt, Pec, Lat, Legs. In the past I’ve put delt and legs together, but since then I’ve really focused on getting those workouts to hit right and it takes too much time with this split. For cardio, I’m going to be changing back to 15-20 minutes of intense post lifting cardio and probably will not be using the second session. Instead, I’ll probably drop a cardio only day somewhere in the split, thus making it a full 7 day split.

We’ll see how it goes though. Progress has been good, but it’s been a long month and changes are in order. So with that in mind, I’m outta here. Best regards to all of you and thanks for reading.

TheLostAlaskan: Out

So I’ve really been falling behind on these blogs as of late. I don’t think I’ve posted since last Sunday… holy ****. Almost a week. Don’t take it to mean that I’ve fallen out though. I’m still pushing strong and trying to get in those last few workouts before the first rolls around. That’s when I’ll be posting updates on my weight, full body measurements, progress photos and (if I can get my camcorder working) a progress video.

Progress has been going well. Like I said in my last blog, I took last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off completely. The only real “workout” that I got during those days was fighting to keep my place at the Tool show on Tuesday. I took in about 150 carbs on Tuesday and then treated Wednesday as my first “true refeed day” in about 30 days. I may have hit around 300-500 carbs that day which is a lot more than I’ve been getting, but after being on such a strict plan for so long, my body needed it. They were all “clean” carbs and no junk food and I actually feel a lot better now that I’m back to the 150, 100, 50, 50 cycle. I may even look a little better as a result of the kick up in metabolic rate.

My lifts are still making gains for the most part. A few moves are remaining about the same, but nothing is dropping so that’s good. I am coming up on my last week of the Novadex cycle though, so I suspect that when I come off of it on the first of August, my strength will drop somewhat. I’m really curious to see how that affects my weight. It could be that my weight drops a bit as a result of coming off, unfortunately it will be muscle mass. I don’t know for sure though. I’ve never tracked my stats close enough during previous cycles. It’ll be interesting to see what happens I suppose.

That’s it for now though. I’ve got to get to the school library to crank out a paper on Hemingway. He’s an awesome author for anyone out there who’s never been exposed to his work.

I’ll try to write again soon.

TheLostAlaskan: Out   

So today (or perhaps I should say the culmination of the past seven days) has left me smoked. There’s no other way to describe it. I was feeling kind of out of it at the gym this morning and even though I made some pretty good gains throughout my Bi/Tri workout, I just couldn’t get into the right place mentally. Then when it came time for cardio, I thought that I was going to die. The latter of these troubles is surely to blame on the fact that leg day was yesterday and my entire lower body is killed now. So I made thirty minutes of a steady jog and had to settle for a brisk walk for the second half of the hour.

I was planning on going in this afternoon for another cardio session and then hitting cardio tomorrow morning as well, but the way that I’m feeling now leaves that as a non-option. I think that I’m just going to rest today and tomorrow. Then I’ve got the Tool show on Tuesday so I’ll have most of that day to rest as well. Considering all that I’ve put my body through over the past twenty-five days however, I think that a few days of quality rest could do me some good. If I don’t make it back into the gym until Thursday of next week, I’m not going to feel too bent out of shape.

On a brighter note, I am happy to say that I squeak when I walk now. Haha. It sounds funny to say it like that, but it’s true. After trying to adjust my old belt by punching extra holes in it in hopes of extending its life with me, I finally resided to getting a new one yesterday. That’s right; I have officially out grown (or out-shrunk perhaps?) my ol’ brown belt and the new one that I’ve got squeaks when I walk. I’m hoping that it just needs to be warn in though because I kind of like this one and it would be a shame to have to go off and get another belt just ‘cause this one’s a little too noisy.

That’s it for today though. I’m going to spend some time reading and maybe sit down to play some Xbox (it’s been a long time since I’ve done so).

So I hope all is well for y’all out there. My best wishes go to everyone and feel free to leave me a message. I’ll try to get back to ya’ as soon as I can.

TheLostAlaskan: Out.

So today started off pretty awesome. It was legs, delts and traps for resistance and I am happy to say that my shin splints are less troublesome than they have been in years. I can pretty much make it though the full hour of post lifting cardio without having them bother me too much, and that’s multiple days in a row too.

Anyways, my next weigh in date was supposed to be the 20^th (Monday), but I was feeling anxious this morning and decided to check and see where I was at to get an idea of what I need to do between now and then to meet the goal weight of 190 lbs. So I wasn’t a bit disappointed to be at 189.4 this morning. It was a good feeling to be back in the one eighties. It’s been a very long time since I could say that.

Physically, I can say that my face is starting to lean out a good bit and my shoulders are showing more and more definition every week, both good signs in my book. As usual however, I have to concede in saying that I still have a very long ways to go, but at least I’m that much closer. Whether I will make my goal of 180 by the 22 of August is somewhat questionable, I can say that I’m on track to be close to it.

And in other news, I got a phone call yesterday morning from the university. They want me to teach freshmen English for them which basically is the best thing that could happen to me right now. That puts me in a place where my tuition is pretty much covered and on top of that I’ll be making reasonable hourly wages with insurance benefits. I really can’t say enough good about it. It’s going to be a really cool change come the end of August.

The training for that starts on August 10^th, so I’m thinking that I’m going to stay on my current carb cycle until then and at that point probably take a rest depending on how I am feeling. By then I will have been on this cycle for about 40 days and the body will be ready for a rest. If nothing else, I’ll at least go up to 250 grams of carbohydrates per day for between three and five days. Like I said though, I’ll have a better idea when I get there as to how to play it.

Other than that, things are going great. I’ve got a lot going in the right direction for me and I’m looking forward to every new day.

That’s it for today. Hope y’all are grinning just as wide.

TheLostAlaskan: Out