alm21’s BodyBlog

I’m glad the week is well under way.  It’s so much easier to stay disciplined during the busy week.  Sunday, my rest day, was difficult to refrain from grazing.  I ate clean all through the day until after dinner.  Let’s just say I made some post dinner mistakes.  I also stayed up late watching Tenacious D, Pick of Destiny.  Ok, time not well spent but some good laughs. 

I woke up late on Monday (duh, can’t stay up late watching movies on a Sunday night) which caused me to miss my cardio.  Crap, off to a bad start.  I had a 4:30 appt with my trainer for a ½ of core conditioning but work kept me so I missed the session.  We rescheduled for today.  I did get in the gym though and worked out my legs.  It was a good workout.  I’ve been focused on good form with squats and getting my ass to the grass.  

So I had a good idea.  Since I missed my cardio I decided to participate in the conditioning exercises that I’m having my 5^th grade girls soccer team do.  It’s an hour and a half practice so we spent the first half hour on conditioning.  I did everything along with them.  They probably didn’t appreciate it too much because I found myself pushing harder than what they thought they could do (not too hard – not trying to hurt them).  I think I will make this a regular thing.  It’s a good way to get some extra conditioning in and better for leading by example.

Today, I woke up later than I wanted but I decided to go in and do my cardio anyway.  So cranked out 15minutes on Cybex (7.5 min on level 75/100 and 7.5 min at 65/100), 20 minutes on treadmill and 10 minutes on stair stepper.  Came home and weighed in at 215lb – yes!  Now, can I keep it at 215lb?  That will be my week’s goal – weigh in at 215lbs this time next week BEFORE I go in and do my cardio.

Time to get to work – hitting core tonight for ½ hour and I think I’ll hit my back.

Today wraps up the workouts for the week.  I actually get to use Sunday as my rest day!  My schedule has been so messed up the last few weeks; I’ve been working out on Sundays to keep up.

So Friday was a good day, other than having to put one of cats down because of cancer; actually this was a big downer.  Although I missed my morning cardio session.  I decided to eat a few more carbs on Friday.  Not a lot but more than previous days.  Along with my supplement stack this is what I ate:

Breakfast: Whole Wheat English Muffin (whole), Two tablespoons of natural peanut butter and some sugar free jam, I also drank 26grams of protein in a shake.

Lunch: About 8+ oz of lean Pork Loin Top Loin Chops (trimmed fat), ½ cup frozen green beans.  I had some cottage cheese in my lunch but I didn’t eat it as I ran out of time and had to rush to meet with a client.
 

Dinner:  We didn’t want to cook as my wife had to take our cat to the vet to be put to sleep while I was at the gym for my evening lift.  So we met at our local neighborhood pub.  I usually order their cobb salad which is really good but I wanted something different and with some carbs.  So I ordered the Club sandwich on whole wheat with Tomato Bisque instead of fries.  I was disciplined in having ice water only – no alcohol even though it was Friday evening and drinks were all around me – plus with the cat situation a drink didn’t sound bad.  But I abstained.  Yes, there was fat in the soup and sandwich but I could have done worse.
 

Snacks:  South Beach bar, handful of cashews and that was it.
 

Evening Lift: Hit my legs for a second time this week.  Tried Good Mornings for the first time.  Love them!  They will be part of my regular leg workout from now on.  I also did squats with light weight but ass to the grass!  They felt good.  My leg workout also included barbell lunges (135lb) and standing calf raises.  After my legs, I hit my core for a half hour which gave me a good burn.
 

Saturday – Went in and worked the chest.  Flat Bench barbell press, Incline dumbbell press, dips and flyes.  Followed by 20 minutes of cardio.  I pushed myself on getting heavier on the presses.  I managed to get 4 reps at 275lbs on the bench – ok I guess but far from my goal of getting a few reps at 300lbs.  I did better on the incline dumbbell press.  I worked up to 95lb dumbbells which felt great.  The challenge with that exercise is getting the dumbbells from resting on my legs to the starting position.  I just tell myself “They’re only 55lbs, they’re light.”  That seemed to help.  I’ll be pushing to get over 100lbs.  Dips were awesome – two sets of 12 reps and two sets of 10reps – bodyweight only but they felt easy.  I remember when they didn’t.  Now only if I could do this many pull-ups.

So, this puts me at a month into making major changes in my workout regimen and diet.  It hasn’t been perfect but I can FEEL the changes more than I can see them.  I’m going to post some progress pics even though I’m reluctant to do so.  I guess I’m concerned that I won’t see the progress.  However, it’s only a month and I’m realistic in my expectations so if I don’t see much change, no worries.  Like I said, I can FEEL the changes this month.  I hope next month will be more about SEEING the changes.  The photos will be for me to track the little changes.

Wednesday Evening:

I didn’t plan on being able to lift yesterday evening now that soccer season has started (coaching youth).  Anyway, after practice I made it in for a late evening lift.  I hit my biceps and triceps.  Again I went heavy and high intensity to get through the lift in just over an hour.  When doing overhead dumbbell tricep press, I strained a tendon in my elbow.  Not terrible but irritating and I now these minor injuries can worsen if I’m not careful.

Ate clean all day –

Breakfast: Egg scramble (1 organic egg, 4 egg whites) – green onion, spinach, smoked salmon, low fat Swiss cheese and organic salsa.  ½ of a whole wheat English muffin with butter substitute. 

Lunch: 1 chicken breast (skinless & boneless), ½ cup frozen peas, ½ cup of 1% milk fat cottage cheese, 1 tablespoon salsa.           

Dinner (after lift so it was late 10:30):  Baja Fresh Chx Side-by-Side Salad and a side of steak (only ate about 1/3 of steak – save for next day)

Snacks: 1 banana, South Beach Bar, handful of cashews.                  
   

I also consumed my supplements which include protein shakes.

Thursday:

Woke up late from late evening workout.  Went in at the lunch hour and did 40 minutes of cardio (heart rate average 142bpm) – 20 minutes on Cybex (5 min level 75, 5 min lvl 65, 5min lvl 55, 5 minute lvl 50) total 436 calories / 20 minutes on Treadmill varying speeds 265 calories.

Evening lift: Shoulders but careful with the sore elbow tendon.  It was a good workout but I felt a bit weak; not tired but weak.  I pushed myself and hit the shoulders well but I didn’t feel 100%.  This may be from a combination of low carbs and running out of my NOXplode stash (now I wait until Sep1 to stock up because of GNC’s Gold Card program).

Eating clean all day – Low calories – maybe that’s why I felt weak.

Breakfast – protein shake and 1 piece of organic whole grain bread with butter substitute.

Lunch - Egg scramble (1 organic egg, 4 egg whites) – spinach, left over steak bits from Baja Fresh, low fat Swiss cheese and organic salsa.

Dinner – 8.6oz of Pork Loin Top Loin Chops (trimmed fat), 1 cup or more of steamed broccoli with butter substitute and light coating of grated parmesan.

Snacks: 1 banana, handful of cashews and whatever I eat from now until bed.

Again, I was tired all day yesterday.  I have to wonder if it’s due to eating few carbs.  I did come up short on my sleep for both of those days so I know that was part of it.  Anyway, I only had a 45 minute window to lift in the evening.  So, I went heavy and focused on upping my intensity on this back day.  I think it was a decent workout.  My abs are sore from Mondays core session which is great.  I don’t remember the last time my abs were sore.

I ate very clean throughout the day but I knew dinner would be a challenge.  It was my wife’s birthday yesterday so we celebrated with our two children at the Portland Steak and Chophouse.  I didn’t eat the calamari that was ordered nor did I eat any of the bread served.  I ordered a New York steak instead of my usual Rib Eye.  It was a 14oz piece so it was a pretty big piece of meat; of course I ate it all.  Instead of a potato side I had them substitute with green beans.  I also had steamed broccoli which is normally served with cheddar cheese sauce which I had them keep in the kitchen.  Since we were celebrating, I had a Bloody Mary prior to our meal and we ordered a bottle of red wine (I had about 1-2 glasses).  My wife had dessert but I passed, didn’t even try it.  So, was I perfect? No, but I don’t harbor any guilt either.  It was a good time, for her BDay present, before dinner we went and bought a ring she has been wanting.  The day before we got her a new SUV.  Now, that wasn’t part of her BDay but the timing wasn’t bad.

Today, I woke around 5:30am.  However I decided to skip my cardio today.  I had a headache come on while I was sleeping which didn’t help.  After Mon and Tue where I felt tired all day long I was concerned about repeating today.  I have some stuff going on at work which requires me to be sharp.  Today is a day where I decided to listen to my body and it was telling me to stay in bed for another hour and get some rest.  I think this will mean that I will have better intensity tomorrow when I get back in for my morning cardio.  

I don’t think I’ll be able to lift tonight since I need to stay late for work and then run over to coach my daughter’s soccer team at 6:30p.  It’s that time of the year which means scheduling my workouts just became more complicated.  Especially since my son starts soccer this year which means we’ll be doing soccer 5 days a week between the two kids.

Monday Evening – after a brief 25 minute cardio session in the morning I hit the gym for a chest and core workout.  I was so tired going into it.  I hit flat bench dumbbell presses followed by incline barbell presses.  Then I did some upright machine flyes.  At this point it was time to meet with my trainer for core exercises for 30 minutes.  As usual he had my abs burning on fire.  I love it and hate it at the same time.  Once completed I finished up with some pulley machine flyes – varying angles.  Then I wrapped it all up with some tricep press downs.  Not a bad workout but I was dragging!  I ate very clean all day so no worries there.

Tuesday AM – Did cardio for 40 minutes.  20 minutes on Cybex (413 calories) and 20 minutes on treadmill with varying speeds (252 calories).  Went home and checked the scale.  It was moving back in the right direction compared to yesterday’s reading but I’m about 1.5-2lbs above what I think I should be at the moment.

Tonight I’m going to hit my back.  My abs are sore from yesterday and my glutes are still sore from Sunday’s leg day.

We reap what we sow, that’s for sure.  Over this past 4-6 weeks I have made major changes in my workout routines, supplementation and diet.  I started to see settle results slowly yet I have been happy with the changes.  But the last three weeks have been very difficult to maintain my discipline, specifically around my diet.

This last weekend was my worst.  I took Wed-Fri off from work for a short vacation.  Sat and Sunday were spent back in town at home.  I worked out on Wed and Thur at the resort gym which was ok.  I didn’t do any cardio Wed-Fri which sucked since I’m trying to do it 5 days a week.  I ate good, pretty clean but my weak moments involved beer, wine and cocktails.  I had 1-4 drinks in the evenings.

Saturday started good by an awesome cardio session early in the morning.  I had a busy day ahead of me so I knew I could only get an hour workout in and only if I went in early.  So, I got up at 5:30am and went in and opted for cardio over lifting.  Like I said, it was good I really upped the intensity.  However, later in the day, I had to go to my nephew’s birthday party.  I was starving at this point and I had eaten clean up to that point.  I turned down the Birthday cake and ice cream but I had some beers.  After the Bday party we went out for dinner which I had a Cobb Salad.  However, later that night I had a couple more adult beverages.  My daughter came home from spending the day with her friend at a company picnic.  She came home with a huge bag of candy with lots of chocolate – my arch nemesis.  I managed to stay away from the candy that evening.

Sunday, I went in and did a leg day.  Good lifts.  I started by eating good for breakfast and lunch – very clean.  Then I went to another Bday party which I ate pretty clean for dinner.  But I broke down and had a large serving of ice cream cake.  I also drank a couple glasses of wine.  When I came home, I had a couple cocktails and a beer.  The alcohol kicked my sugar cravings into high gear and weakened my better judgment.  I ate chocolate out of my daughters HUGE candy stash.  Oh man, what have I done?

Monday – woke up feeling sluggish – can’t imagine why?!  I went in to do my cardio but only did 25minutes.  Afterwards, I stepped on the scale to assess the post weekend damage.  Boy, am I paying for it now – not what I wanted to see.  Well, I’m glad to be home so I can get back into my healthy routine.  It won’t be hard but I’m guilt ridden from my weekend.  I have great discipline when I’m home and doing my regular routine through the week but the social events have been hectic and I have made poor choices.  Tonight, I see my trainer who has been helping me with core exercises – he always works me into the ground.  This will help me get back on the horse.

It’s clear to me that I need to stay away from alcohol as it leads to more drinks and massive cravings.  As well as poor sleep which leads to its’ own set of problems.  I won’t cut it out completely but I do need to treat it as a cheat meal and make sure it’s infrequent and in small quantities.

When calculating daily water consumption, should I include the water I add in my protein and other supplement beverages?  If I’m shooting for 100-128ozs a day, can I include the H2O content in the sup drinks in my tally?  I’m curious to know how people here go about it.

Last Thursday, I got up at 3:00am and couldn’t go back to sleep.  I wasn’t able to lift that day or on the previous Tuesday and Wednesday.  However, I did my morning cardio sessions Mon-Wed and even went in on Thursday with little sleep.  After I got home Thursday morning, I headed out to Central Oregon for a 4 day weekend.  I knew it was going to be tough to stay on track with this trip.  On Friday, I went into the resort’s fitness room (universal gym, two treadmill, two eliptical machines and one bike - not much) did a morning cardio session and went in later to work chest, shoulders and triceps.  Saturday, I had less time so I did 30 minutes cardio followed by abs, back and biceps.  Sunday was an off day.  I ate pretty good but there was some adult beverages and a couple meals where I could have done better (dinners of course).  I was glad to get back into town so I can use my regular gym and get back on schedule with lifting and eating.  Last week was tough for getting my lifts in.  All in all, last week (Mon-Sun) I had 6 days of cardio and 3 days of lifting.

Monday of this week - did 50 minutes cardio in the morning ( 15min Cybex / 20 min Treadmill / 15 min stair climber).  Then I went and did legs in the evening - 1hr of lifting.

Tuesday - did 45 minutes cardio in the morning (25min Treadmil / 20 min Cybex).  Going in to do chest this evening.  If I can stay awake.  The trip to Bend threw me off my early morning schedule - now I need to readjust.