Archhawk’s BodyBlog

…at it.

After a 13 day break including a week on the Outer Banks in Corolla, NC, I finally got my lazy, vacationed ass back to the gym yesterday morning and continued the trend again today.

I was seriously in danger of succumbing to the inertia of slothness.

I feel better now.

195 by November 18th!

I went to the Doc last week for a regular check up.  As a Type 2 diabetic he likes to see me every 4 - 6 months.  It had been 9, oops.

Of course there is the mandatory blood test.  Which also of course I have to do under fasting conditions.  Fasting for 12 hours when you are used to eating every 3.5-4 hours can be a real pain in the stomach-y growl-y kinda way.

I was waiting for the info from the blood test.  Just got it yesterday.

Everything was/is so good that I decided to share….

Blood Sugar (fasting):  87

Liver and Kidney function:  ++good (his words)

A1c:  5.9 (should be <7)
- A1c is a measure of blood sugar over the previous 3 months

Total Cholesterol:  124 (should be <200)

Triglycerides:  85 (should be <150)

HDL:  44 (should be >40)
- 9 months ago i was at 38, woulda been about a month after I started at the gym.

LDL:  63 (should be <70)
- 9 months ago I was right at 70, woulda been about a month after I started at the gym.

The national average for LDL/HDL = 3.6.  Mine is 1.43  (Lower is better) 

BP was 120/80

So, overall, I am pretty happy.  I was intending to be lighter and less on the BF but the blood test numbers offer a significant read on general health and improvement over time.  I’ll take it…..and re-double the effort in the kitchen and the gym.

…15 April 2009….

OK, so I get to my office in the morning and I notice the four 24oz. partially drunk Diet Pepsi bottles lined up on the edge of my desk and think "Gee, I really do drink too much of that stuff."  So, I am on a Diet Pepsi / Diet Soda purge that started on Wednesday morning.  As of Friday when I am writing this I am still going strong.

So far the killer times have been at lunch and dinner.  No breaks though.  My plan is to go a week and see how I feel or if I notice any direct changes related to not having it in my system.

So that set of 13 weeks is over so time for a change up again.  On Saturday I started back lifting and cut back on the cardio.  During this past 13 weeks I did manage to reduce the weight from 227 to 220 and the BF from 28 or so down to 24.5.  While I still want to lose more weight, I feel the need to lift again.

Posted some numbers this evening for the bench and barbell curl I did on Saturday and the squats I did today (Monday).  I started at a little bit less than where I left off so that is reflected in the charts/graphs.  A little dip.  Felt OK.  Don’t think there will be a problem upping within the week.  I am realizing now that a good goal for me, at least on the bench will be to match weight lifted to body weight.  Continuing to lose an average of a pound a week and gaining 5 pounds on the press per week should have the two lines crossing at about 210lbs.  Something I am going to shoot for.

….I know it’s out there somewhere!

Been being as diligent as I can be and yet getting down to 220 seems to be elusive at best.  I’m so close I can taste it.  Maybe that’s not the best word to use!  I’ve been working out now, 4 out of 5 days, and doing my damndest to maintain the right caloric level and macronutrient level.  I am flirting with the 220 mark and am going to break it this week for good.

My greatest weakness is the after dinner time, before bed hours.  I eat great in the morning through lunch, munching meals at 5:30am, 9:00am and 12:30pm.  I generally do not eat anything at the 4:00pm slot.  I go to the gym at that time and putting food in my stomach is counter productive in a gastronomical sense for me.  I then eat dinner at 7-7:30pm after getting home.  Dinners tend to be a little bit bigger, making up for the missed afternoon meal.  Not sure if that’s wise.

Anyway, after dinner, say 9:30-10:00, just before I usually go to bed, I want to nibble on something.  It’s prior to my typical 3.5 hour eating slot during the day (which would put it more around 11pm) and I think it is more psychosomatic than anything else, brought on by sitting in front of the TV, doing school work, surfing the ‘net, playing EVE, reading, or whatever other night activity I am about.  This tends to be a downfall for me.  I do not generally like the idea of eating before going to bed.  If I do, what should it be?  Or should I just try to tuff it out till I tumble off?

A quandry….

Well OK, the holidays were great.  They also sucked program wise.  My goal was to maintain through December and into mid-January.  Why mid-January?  Well my birthday is/was the 13th and historically my family ended the holiday season at my birthday.  So that hangs with me right into the present.  Anyway, needless to say, I did gain some weight and the bf went up as well.  So overall not good.  No excuses.  Just crappy attitude towards going to the gym.  It’s been cold.  I had a cold for a week.  Work’s been busy.  I could use them all.

Currently I stand at about 29%bf, up from a low at the beginning of September of about 24%.  Weight is about 227 or so, up from a low of 221 around the end of September.

What to do?  Get back at it!  After being sick for a week, I got back into the gym last week.  This week I am going to get back onto my regular schedule with both the gym and the food intake.  I started back in May at 246 and got down to 221 and was back up to 230 at one point.  I was not able to crack the 220 line previously.  With the bump up I am going to use that as a new starting point and repeat the loss from previously, this time breaking the 220 barrier that is in my head.

That’s the plan.  Tactically, I am going to eat cleaner and add more calorie burn back into the work out mix.  I think that was missing recently.  Just going to bump the workout time to 1.5 hours on the floor rather than 1 hour.  This re-jiggered mix will be on the plate for the next 8-10 weeks or so.

The "looking good" goal is for our trip to Vegas at the beginning of April.  205lbs.  Here I come.

Been a little while since I posted last….yes, I am still here.

The last few weeks I have been working through some carpal tunnel related pain in my right wrist.  At first I thought it was something I had aggravated by lifting…I do use my right wrist to mouse.  I use a turbo ball and my desk set-up is not ideal.  Anyway, I took a little break from lifting anything involving the use of the wrists but was still having the problem.

Then I realized what was causing the inflammation….Sudoku!

That’s right.  Sudoku on my iPhone.  I installed the game to kill time on the bus ride into Center City and home again at night.  What I realized is that I was playing the game by holding the phone in my right hand and using my right thumb, almost exclusively, to touch the screen to place numbers and marks.  And THAT apparently really tested/teased the bundle through the tunnel.  Since stopping doing that…I now hold the phone with my left hand and use my pointer finger to touch…the inflammation has subsided enough where I can get back to using my wrists to lift.  I am going slow at this point to not over do it until it all heals up.

Meanwhile, I am still stuck at just over 220.  I am buckling down and making some dietary adjustments along with adjustments in the gym to get me beyond this hump.

…punching new holes into old belts.

I think I may be beyond the 220 plateau.

We’ll see.  So far for this week and since the weekend (where I was fairly non-meal-plan conforming), the scale at the gym on Monday recorded 219.  That’s a first for a Monday and I am going to take it as a good sign.  A good sign to keep doing what I have been doing, buckle down and move forward.  Not a sign to go party.

I think I was too taken with the "easy" success of the first 13 weeks (ARRGH! The girl at the salad place put cuccumber in my salad!  I never get cuccumber!  Blech!) even though I knew the second phase would be tougher.  Pretty sure the vacation, even though I mostly held steady through it, did not help my mind set.  A month after we got back from St. Thomas and I am just now getting mentally back to being in the gym and workin’ it.

More later….

I think I hit a wall called 221.  I have been dancing around this weight now for about two weeks, since just before vacation to now.  I think I recovered from vacation pretty well.  I just can not seem to bust the 220 barrier.  I have been eating the same…5 meals, watching the calories and the fat percentage overall.  I have been hitting the gym on the same regular basis.

I am going to give it another week and a half to see what happens with the regular routine before making any changes.

Hmmm….